Tuesday, February 28, 2017


Bizarre Paranormal Encounters in the War in Afghanistan

There can be no doubt that terrifying things can happen in times of war. However, in most cases it can at least be counted on that the enemy one faces is a living human being. What happens when other, more supernatural forces creep into war zones? What are soldiers to do when faced with mysterious phantoms, ghosts, apparitions and entities against which they have no experience and which they have not been trained to fight? War zones have attracted tales of hauntings and supernatural phenomena since time unremembered, and certainly one of the more modern such places of paranormal terror is the desolate battlefields of the war in Afghanistan. This is a place that is not only plagued by fighting and violence, but also apparently strange forces that have shown some soldiers here that human enemies are not always the only thing to be scared of in these bleak, violent wastelands.
Several mysterious reports came from a United States Marine who had just come back home after serving a tour of duty in Afghanistan. The witness tends to be quite secretive about his role in the war, only stating that his unit was “relatively safe,” and only suffered two non-combat related casualties. The witness claims to have had a couple of potential encounters with ghosts during his service, and one of them occurred as he was sitting with some superiors and colleagues within a makeshift office in the desert which had three rooms. There were reportedly four other people in the cramped room with him when, as he was standing near the backdoor, he noticed his Lieutenant step through the door and enter a small adjoining contractor’s office. He saw the man clearly, but at this point there was nothing particularly strange about it, and the witness explained “he was wearing a FROG suit and everything. Nothing unusual about him. Even had the moustache.”
Marines in Afghanistan
Just 30 seconds later a call came through asking for the Lieutenant and the witness went to the contractor’s office to fetch him. Strangely, the room was completely empty – nobody was there. Since there was no other door out of the office, the witness asked if anyone  had noticed the Lieutenant leave, but nobody had, even though there were four others in the enclosed space and it seemed that somebody would have noticed such a thing. The witness went to the rear door of the office they were in and looked around but there was no one there either. Even a look outside showed no signs of anyone. It was as if the Lieutenant had just disappeared into thin air. The witness explained:
I said ‘Disregard Sgt., nobody is around, looks like I was seeing things.’ Then, my roommate a fellow Lance says to me “That’s bull****, you and I both know somebody is in that room,” and I just said “Nope. You saw it too. Someone walked in, and nobody came out, but nobody is there.
Another incident in the very same office happened one evening at around 10PM. The witness claims that he was alone after working late and on his way out when the door to the contractor’s room opened by itself and stayed open. He went to investigate and shone a flashlight about into the dim space but no one was there. He said that at the time he had a very strange feeling like he was being watched and that it was quite unsettling. The very same witness claimed to have seen other strange things during his tour. He also says that there was a mysterious heat signature that would be seen on infrared equipment wandering and pacing around out in the desert outside in the dark, yet when it was observed with different cameras or the naked eye, nothing was there and there was no response when they called out into the night.
Another witness who reported strange, ghostly figures in the desert claimed that his unit was plagued by a mysterious phantom that would appear around the outskirts of their camp and vanish in the blink of an eye. The first time it appeared was a little after dusk, a couple hundred yards from their position. One of the men, described as a “random PVT,” told the others that there was a person out in the wilderness just standing there. The witness looked and at first couldn’t see anything but after a moment could make out a dark blob in the vague shape of a person. The Sergeant apparently was called over and saw it too. When asked where the figure had come from, the private explained that it had “just popped up.” Whoever was out there there was just standing motionless with its back to them. The witness described the eerie scene and what happened next:
So we watch this “person” for about 3hrs, who just stands there, motionless, with its back to us. You could put optics on it and see it was a person, adult male, average height and build. Best part: we “borrowed” a thermal monocular and this fucker doesn’t register in it. ZERO FUCKING HEAT SIGNATURE. Then randomly, just poof, gone. Random PVT spends the next 6 weeks telling everyone about the ghost we saw.

Around 6 months later, the same witness was out on patrol when two of his unit reported seeing two figures standing on top of a berm a couple of hundred yards away. Anticipating an enemy IED (Improvised Explosive Device), they stopped the vehicle and examined the figures, which appeared to be men just standing with their backs to them. They were motionless and would not respond when called to, just like the strange phantom previously seen 6 months earlier. The Lieutenant called it in and some of the men got out to go investigate. The witness would explain what happened next thus:
We dismount, LT calls over terp asks if he knows what’s up. Terp gives blank stare and shrugs. LT decides we should go have a look-see and do some hearts-and-minds shit. I stay in the truck (which feels like 140 fucking degrees), 20min goes by LT comes back with weird look on his face and says ‘we’re outta here.’ Later that day I asked another guy WTF happened, he says they get within 50yds of aforementioned “persons” and, presto, gone. I ask “what do you mean, gone?” and he just looks at me with this blank stare and says “gone. They were there, and then they weren’t. Weird huh?’
In another account, a marine who served in Afghanistan and Yemen from 2009-2013 relates an odd experience. One evening at 1AM, the witness had just finished setting up a patrol base with four members of his squad while the other seventeen men slept. In front of the patrol base was a huge, open field and to the left was, rather spookily, an Afghan cemetery. As the witness was looking out over the field on watch duty, he claims that a rock came hurtling through the air to land at his feet. Thinking this to be peculiar he peered out into the darkness over the field, which was wide open with no blind spots or hiding places, but he couldn’t see anyone there nor any movement. As he was looking, another rock reportedly was tossed in his direction from the field. The witness put on night vision equipment but could still see no one there, and infrared turned up no heat signatures either. The night was completely quiet and that field was totally empty. Yet another rock would be lobbed at him as he tried to figure out what was going on, and the whole thing was quite unnerving. The marine would say of the eerie incident:
At this point I’m kinda freaked out. This happened right after my team leader died. So I was freaked out and nothing to rule out what threw rocks at me because no one was there.

Equally as bizarre as any of these accounts of strange intruders is that of another soldier who was operating with a special forces squad in the mountains of Afghanistan with the mission of setting up a hide-to-survey in a village several miles away that was believed to be harboring a Taliban person of interest who the military had been tracking for years. The squad’s main goal at the time was to observe the village for a few days for any suspicious activity or persons, as well as to collect any useful information that could be later used in a raid. To this end they set up a team of six men at the base and two others whose job was to creep in closer to observe from a different vantage point.
Things went well at first, but on the second day the squad began having trouble maintaining radio contact with the observation team and the TOC (Tactical Operations Center). They found that transmissions were plagued by static and sometimes would not go through at all. It was chalked up to the magnetic content of the rocks in the area and the witness and some of the men went out to re-position the Satcom in order to get a better signal. As they were doing this at around dusk, one of the soldiers said he spotted a man wearing a white robe who looked to be flitting and running through the rocks outside of the village. When this was reported the men were immediately suspicious, and the witness would say:
There was something odd about the way he described it, but we were more worried about being compromised. Needless to say, we folded up our shit and got ready to move out. We weren’t going to end up in some Lone Survivor type clusterfuck. We were the fuck out of there. So at this point it’s late dusk, and we were moving pretty quick. Everyone is on high fucking alert, we are a small element in a remote area without ready access to any kind of quick reaction force and we had no reliable comms.

The team continued their hasty trek back towards their outpost, and the witness took up the rear, walking backwards and making sure they weren’t being followed or leaving a clear trail, his gun trained on the darkness the whole time. As he did this he spotted a fleeting glimpse of something white moving in the distance, although he could not be sure just what it was or if it was following them. Oddly, he would later report that at the time he had begun to sense the smell of freshly baked bread permeating the air and a sudden onset of a feeling of peace and relaxation, which he sensed was emanating from the direction they had come from. This sensation was so profound that he actually slowed down, and thoughts danced through his head of running over to this comfortable place he felt pulling at him from where they had been. He shook off this daze and reported to the other men what he had seen and that he thought they were possibly being trailed, to which an officer replied that he had seen something white moving as well. The witness would say:
I asked my dudes to keep their eyes open for anything, because I thought I had seen someone trailing us. Our senior scout piped in “That’s strange mom, (I was mom, long story) I thought I saw some dude in white on the ridge in front of us.” At this point all the hairs on my neck are standing up. Everything felt strange. The air felt heavy, and sort of sweet. The silence hummed loudly.
With the night steadily moving in, a sense of urgency, panic, and dread set in and the men picked up the pace, even though they were already exhausted from hauling their heavy packs over the uneasy, rugged terrain. As darkness creeped over the landscape to slowly envelope them in pitch blackness, they put on their NODS (night vision goggles), turning the world into a green haze. The night was incredibly silent, even more than usual, and there was no movement out there in the mountainous moonscape bathed in the green cast of the night vision goggles. But this eerie silence would not last, and this is when things allegedly got very strange indeed. The witness describes it best:
Hallucinations happen. But what happened was beyond comprehension. First, we heard a sound like a huge airplane taking off. A loud low buzz that slowly increased in pitch. We had to yell over comms to hear each other. Everywhere I looked, I kept seeing what looked like glowing eyes staring back at me, but once i would center my focus on where I saw them, they would disappear. We were fucking panicked. Everyone was holding their rifles at the high ready, we were expecting some kind of ambush attack and we started talking out the RP we would meet at if we needed to start a peel and move. Then it all just stopped. Everything got dark. The only thing I could hear was my breath and the blood pumping in my head. We stopped, dug into the side of the mountain, and performed SLLS (Stop look listen Smell) for about 10 minutes. Nothing. Not even bugs. The air and the land were silent.

Baffled, frightened, and overcome with fatigue, the men quickly resumed their trudge through the wilderness back to their camp, very aware that something very possibly malignant and beyond their experience was out there in the dark somewhere. As they scrambled over loose rock and through scrub and brush the witness claims that he suddenly noticed on a parallel hillside the very clear sight of a man dressed in light colored robes, which seemed to be slowly making his way towards their position. Bizarrely, it seemed that that the stranger was just passing through any obstacles he came across as he moved slowly but inexorably closer. The witness would describe the rest of the surreal encounter thus:
He seemed to melt over and around the rocks, it was fucking unnatural the way he was moving. Through the NODS, his eyes glowed. I scoped up on him, and saw that he was looking directly at me. It was pitch black, there is no way he could have saw us from that distance without any kind of night optics. Suddenly, he stopped. He picked up one of his limbs and held it in the air, almost like he was waving at me. Then the arm melted back into his form, like it wasn’t an arm at all, but some kind of extendable proboscis that was meant to look like an arm from a distance. I was about to ask the guy’s if they could see him, when he suddenly disappeared.
The witness also saw lights flickering in the distance near the town, which he presumed to be the enemy closing in on the area where the booming sound had originated. The team moved on and managed to make it back to their recovery location. They went on to recount their strange experiences and were reportedly told that it was probably all attributable to weariness, panic, and adrenaline. The whole thing was more or less forgotten until a few days later, when the story would take another weird turn. According to the witness:
The reason we did the observation was so we could bring the intel back for a raid that was to be conducted. The raid was ‘successful’, in the sense that finding a deer hit by a car is a successful deer hunt. Apparently, the team that moved into the village found it completely abandoned. They also found several men in the area where I had seen the lights the night we were hauling ass out of there. The corpses had been ripped to shreds, and based on the sheer amount of blood, the general consensus was that there were more men that were killed there than just the bodies that were found. It went in the official records as a successful raid with several enemy KIA’s. Unofficially? No one has any idea what killed them. All I know is whatever it was…it chose. It chose those men and not us.
Whatever that “it” was remains unknown. Another account that most certainly belongs here is one given by a commenter on another article of mine on mysteries in the war in the Middle East. It is an account that seems hard to really categorize, but seeming to deal with ghosts, demons, or some other supernatural beings. The commenter, Jerry Aberdeen, related a truly bizarre experience that happened to him when he was stationed in Mosul, Ninewah Province in 2004, and it is so intriguing and fitting that I felt compelled to share it here. Jerry Aberdeen explains his very weird story thus:
I was attached to 2/3 INF 3 SBCT at FOB Patriot. A call went out on the radio that FOB Diamondback (the airfield) was under attack. Everyone on every FOB from, Courage, Blickenstaff, Patriot and Marez jumped into the closest vehicle and headed to the airfield to counter the attack. I was in a vehicle with some other infantry guys, an engineer and a PsyOps guy. When we got to the airfield we saw some dudes trying to climb over the wall. The gunner opened up on them and the rest of us took up a position in a ditch on the other side of the road and opened fire. There were three of us side by side, the engineer, the PsyOps guys and myself. We fired and one guy and he dropped from the top of the wall (hard to tell who actually shot him). Right after he fell there was stream of black smoke coming out of him. The engineer made that comment that he must have been wearing a suicide vest and it malfunctioned. A few seconds later the black smoke grew larger and started to take a human looking form. What happened next all three of us saw and there was no doubt. The now fully materialized black smoke was standing upright and now had red smoky glowing eyes and a weird looking mouth. The damn thing actually smiled at us and turned to, sort of run but it just dissipated after it took a few steps. Very hard to describe how it all happened. All three of us just looked at each other wide eyed for a second or two. After it was all over we only spoke about once then never again.

So far here we have been looking at assorted isolated incidents of the strange and supernatural, but the war in Afghanistan also seems to have certain places that draw in such bizarre tales. One such place is a lonely outpost called Observation Point Rock, also known as simply “The Rock,” which sits exposed around 20 meters (65ft) above the desert and situated near what appears to be a looming, giant rock, but which is actually the ruins of a caved-in, ancient mud fort, complete with arrow slits and the crumpled remains of turrets. Captured from the Taliban in 2008, the isolated outpost typically holds a small contingent of U.S. Marines to keep watch and guard it, and in addition to its reputation as being a harsh, forbidding place full of dust and grit and sporadic rocket attacks by Taliban fighters, it has also gathered about it an even more sinister reputation of being an intensely haunted and cursed one.
Almost as soon as the Marines moved in there were strange stories and dark rumors swirling about the place. It was said that Taliban fighters had been buried alive in the caves below, and that there were numerous bodies of Russian soldiers buried here during the failed Soviet invasion of these lands. One group of Marines digging a trench claimed to have come across a human leg bone, which led to the discovery of another piece of human remains, followed by another and another, including skulls and whole desiccated corpses and skeletons, which were all believed to have possibly been Russian since a stake with Russian writing was found. They would later find out that a contingent of Russian soldiers had been supposedly executed there in the 1980s after being found by the Taliban while using the rock as a hideout. Also among the macabre remains were found shards of ancient pottery long buried within the dry earth with more inscrutable, unknown origins.

With the creepy ambiance and all of the bodies said to be entombed here it was perhaps no surprise that weird reports would start popping up amongst those stationed here in these badlands. Noises with no discernible source, objects moving on their own, strange lights, disembodied cries or screams, the sound of footsteps or crunching gravel even when there was no one there, the sudden onset of heavy feelings of dread … the men serving here were often plagued with various strange phenomena. Electrical equipment was also said to often malfunction here, and that fresh batteries had a habit of going dead within minutes. On some occasions, machine gun fire or incoming rockets could be heard, but nothing was hit and none of the guns had been fired. There were cases of movement seen on the perimeter only to turn up no trespassers on thermal equipment and no footprints. A Sergeant Josh Brown, 22, once said of Observation Point, “The local people say this is a cursed place. You will definitely see weird-ass lights up here at night,” and another soldier named Lance Corporal Austin Hoyt, 20 has said:
This place really sucks. The Afghans say it’s haunted. Stick a shovel in anywhere and you’ll find bones and bits of pottery. This place should be in National Geographic — in the front there are weird-looking windows for shooting arrows. You know, they say the Russians up here were executed by the Mujahidin.
Strange phenomena were said to have been going on before they had even arrived. The British soldiers who had occupied the base before them also supposedly had experienced such strangeness, and even warned the American troops of what to expect when they got there. They claimed that lights prowled the bleak landscape, that phantoms and shadows moved about in the desert which were only briefly glimpsed by infrared cameras before vanishing, that there were dancing lights that could be observed through night vision goggles, that there were often noises and voices from nowhere, screams or shrieks out in the desert at night, and that to touch any relics or bones found there was to invite great misfortune.

Although the tales of the supernatural surrounding the haunted base are numerous, some stand out as particularly creepy. One Corporal Jacob Lima had a few spooky stories to tell concerning the Observation Point Rock. In one account he claimed that one night he was startled by a chilling scream coming from one of the men. When Lima ran to investigate, he found a Corporal Zolik cowering in fear at his guard post. Zolik claimed that as he had been sitting there, he had felt breath on his ear and heard a clear voice whisper something in Russian. The man was so terrified that he begged Lima to stay with him until his shift was finished. As they waited there together Lima said on several occasions they heard footsteps up on the observation post above them, even though no one else was there. At one point during the night Lima was scanning the area with thermal imaging and allegedly saw what looked like another soldier with “balled fists” standing out in the desert. As he tried to discern whether it was friend or foe, the mysterious figure vanished into thin air right before his eyes. The whole incident was enough to make Zolik desperately requested a transfer out of there. Interestingly, other men also frequently reported hearing disembodied whispers in Russian around the outpost.
On another occasion, Lima was on watch and suddenly heard a dog that was kept there, named Ugly Betty, barking wildly at something. Thinking it could be the enemy, Lima put on his night vision goggles and scanned the night for movement, which turned up what appeared to be a figure in the distance. Not sure what he was seeing, he switched to thermal imaging and tried to find the figure again but it was gone. When he went back to night vision he was able to see the mysterious figure again, which had inexplicably closed a large distance in just moments. A switch back to thermal once again turned up no heat signatures at all, even though Lima was sure that the whatever-it-was was still there. At some point in all of this switching between thermal and night vision, he lost sight of the figure altogether, at which point he claims he felt a heavy tap on his shoulder. When he turned around there was supposedly no one there. Somewhere out in the night, the dog was still barking.
Observation Point Rock is not the only supposedly haunted military outpost in Afghanistan – another notorious one is called Forward Operation Base Salerno. The location of the base already lends itself well to spooky tales, as on its outskirts is an old Afghan graveyard, which is overlooked by two high watchtowers. Indeed, it is these towers that are said to be intensely haunted by what appears to be the spirit of a little girl, said to be sometimes heard or seen wandering around aimlessly either in the towers themselves or in the area around them.

One frightening report concerns two paratroopers with the 2nd Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment named Painter and Jackson, who one night were on watch duty when they were startled by a blood curdling, shrill laugh emanating from their radio, so high-pitched as to almost cause pain. The laugh was described as sounding like that of a little girl, and Painter would claim that “No grown man in the Army could have made it.” When the unearthly laugh stopped, the two men radioed to others on watch but it turned out that no one else had heard a thing. The very next evening, the two men were on watch duty again in the same place, still rather unnerved by what had happened the night before. As they sat there in the dark, they claim that they heard movement and footsteps in the tower, particularly on the trap door that led to another level, even though they were the only ones there. The room also allegedly suddenly became very cold for no apparent reason.
This was unsettling enough, but then there came a call over the radio from the other watch tower, claiming that they were detecting a small, 3-foot-tall figure wandering around in the dark outside. Creepily, although no details of the strange phantom could be seen, what did appear to be clear was that whatever it was reportedly seemed to be waving at them. Jackson says he went out onto the balcony to investigate but saw nothing but the desolate nighttime landscape and that graveyard out in the murk. A scan of the surroundings with thermal imaging equipment also turned up no heat signatures of any kind. After that, the scared men reluctantly continued the rest of their shift with no further such phenomena. Interestingly, although this incident was indeed frightening, neither of the men felt that the ghost was malevolent, but rather that it seemed to just want to play.
In this case the figure had been small but rather indistinct, yet other stories add more eerie detail. On another occasion that supposedly happened years earlier, two Marines were in one of the watch towers when they looked out and clearly saw through their night vision goggles a young girl walking along in the desert night with a goat, but when they took the goggles off the both the girl and the goat were gone.  As soon as they put the goggles back on the girl was back, this time shockingly standing on the watchtower balcony, much to the horror of the guards. The event was so upsetting that these toughened Marines were supposedly reduced to tears and refused to go back to the tower. This is not even an isolated incident, and there have been other sightings of a ghostly little girl out walking abut, either by herself or with a goat, both always undetectable by thermal imaging or night vision.

Adding to ghostly lore of Forward Operating Base Salerno is the account of an Airman who had done two deployments in Afghanistan and had spent much of that time stationed at the base, where he stayed at a compound designated for aviation personnel. One night,  he says he was out with another person from his platoon to go visit a friend of theirs who was doing guard duty at one of the towers. The friends spent some time chatting and, by the time they left the guard, it was quite late and the moonless night was pitch black, making it hard to get back to their compound since they did not have night vision goggles with them. They got lost and decided to head back to the guard tower to ask for directions back. As they set out into the night again towards the compound, they claim they heard a rustling and footsteps like someone coming up behind them, but when they looked, no one was there. This would happen several times as they picked up their pace and finally reached their destination. Could this have been the same spectral little girl? The mysteries of this place have yet to be explained, and there have been so many strange, unexplained phenomena at Forward Operating Base Salerno that it has become almost legendary in the region among military personnel.
What lies behind cases like these? Is there anything to them, or is this all the result of a scared mind seeing the world through the cracked sense of stress, horror, fatigue, and hallucination? There are many who say that this is precisely what it is. However, although I can see this being the case with lone, isolated individuals, it becomes harder to explain in these terms when the apparition is seen and experienced by several men at once. Is this possible that it is just a mass hallucination where each one sees exactly the same thing at exactly the same time down to every detail? Is this something that truly happens with mere hallucinations? There is also the fact that they may be lying, which is a possibility, but then again we are dealing with men with more on their mind, like staying alive and combating the enemy, than coming up with fanciful tales for the amusement of it all. Then there is the possibility that something truly strange is really going on, but what that could be remains evasive.
In the end, it certainly seems that war zones can attract just as many strange specters, phantoms, and assorted entities and spooky tales of hauntings as any old derelict house or secluded, darkened forest. In fact, some of the most haunted places in the world are places that have been cast under the shadow of violent battle and strife, whether that is happening now or a dark piece of history from centuries ago. War zones and battlefields consistently draw to themselves such eerie stories, as if they are not only collecting ghosts in the sense of memories of a bloody past, but also literal ones as well. Is it because places so saturated with killing, anguish, and horrific struggle somehow tether the spirits of the dead to them? Does all of this negative energy manifest itself in some bizarre and mysterious fashion beyond our understanding? Is it because the gruesome horrors of war have managed to pervade the landscape and etch themselves onto the very fabric of reality, like light onto film, with events and individuals playing back like a video? We may never know the answers to questions such as these, but one thing that becomes apparent when looking at these accounts is that sometimes those in the field face terrors both human and otherwise, and must come face to face with fear both living and dead.

MEANWHILE, IN SPAIN, THEY’RE ARRESTING BANKSTERS

Typically, according to "Great Power" theory, Spain lost its status as a Great Power in the Napoleonic era, and hence, it gets ignored... too much, in my opinion. The reason? Spain may have fallen on hard times from the end of the Napoleonic era up through the Spanish Civil War and the victory of Franco, but under Franco it regained much of its lost economic clout and, despite grievous setbacks in recent years, in 2016 was the 10th largest world economy by Gross Domestic Product, and the fifth largest in the European Union, behind Germany, the U.K., France, and Italy, and just slightly ahead of the Netherlands. But Spain, in a manner rather similar to Great Britain, does have an enormous soft-power card, due to the enormous influence it has had historically on the development of western culture. From the Philippines to Central and South America, Spanish culture became the dominant influence. During World War Two Franco carefully maneuvered, in spite of enormous pressure to join the Axis, to keep Spain neutral, playing the soft power card quite effectively in this effort, reminding the Axis powers that any invasion of Spain would be met with stiff resistance, and sever any useful ties the Axis had, via Spain, with the rest of the Latin world and most importantly, with their considerable investments in South America. In return, Franco bought Spain's neutrality by sending a "volunteer" infantry division, the "Blue" division, to fight with the Axis in the Soviet Union, where it distinguished itself in combat operations in and around Leningrad.
So when a major economy of the West decides to start arresting banksters, I sit up and take notice (thanks to Mr. B.H. for sharing this article):
Note how this article by Jacky Murphy begins:
Spain's Supreme court last year ruled that there was “serious inaccuracies” about listing led investors to back Bankia in error, as a result the bank has paid out millions of Euros in compensation.
If one translates this, what the Spanish Supreme Court is really saying is that Bankia, a consortium built from other failed banks(!), failed to apprise investors of serious exposure and risk; in short, it committed major material omissions of fact. This in and of itself is highly significant, but its import takes on a more sinister aspect when one connects it to the last paragraph in the article:
“The court is questioning why they allowed Bankia to sell shares in an initial public offering in 2011, less than a year before Bankia’s portfolio of bad mortgage loans forced the government to seize control of it. It said there was evidence the regulators had ‘full and thorough knowledge’ of Bankia’s plight. After its nationalisation, it went on to report a €19.2bn ($24.7bn) loss for 2012, the largest in Spanish corporate history.” (Emphasis added)
Now, many people may recall that Spain did indeed embark on an orgy of real estate projects during the pre-2008 boom, and, like other countries, when the housing bubble collapsed, the problems began. Additionally, while not often mentioned in connection to the refugee crisis, the Spanish government, like others, fell victim to the the multicultural virus and began importing refugees to such an extent that it dramatically effected the ability of native Spaniard youth to gain jobs; consequently unemployment rose dramatically, and with it, calls for secession from Madrid in various regions, most notably Catalonia. One reader of this website, located in Spain, referred years ago to the whole process of being one of remaking Spain into "Spanistan." And though we don't hear of Spain in this connection as often as we do of the Netherlands, France, Germany or Italy, or for that matter Great Britain or the USA, there has been a growing backlash against these policies among Spaniards.
What caught my eye here, however, was the admission that Bankia's and indeed Spain's economic woes were due to the same cause as elsewhere: "bad mortgage loans." That, as one might imagine, caught my eye because I strongly suspect there is much more going on in between the lines, as it were, than the Spanish people, and indeed the rest of us, are being told. Bad mortgage loans would seem to be a euphemism for "mortgage backed derivative securities," and with that possibility comes today's high octane speculation, for we all know what large European bank is up to its earlobes in derivatives exposure, and which has been the target of a number of investigations in Great Britain, the U.S.A., and Italy: Deutsche Bank. As of yet, I know of no direct evidence connecting Bankia's woes to those of Deutsche Bank, other than this exposure to "bad mortgage loans." But if here, as elsewhere, this is connected to derivatives exposure, then I suspect that eventually the Spanish investigators might be connecting all sorts of dots.  Those dots, I rather suspect, will take them first to Italy, where similar patterns of material omission, usage of the float, and so on, seem to be implicated in the controversy surrounding Italian investigations of Deutsche Bank in connection with Banca dei Paschi di Sienna, and from there I suspect the Spanish, too, will be led eventually to Frankfurt.
And in the prevailing political atmosphere, this does not bode well for Mad Madam Merkel's political future.

Monday, February 27, 2017

"The Pusher" by Steppenwolf


You know, I've seen a lot of people walk'in' 'round
With tombstones in their eyes
But the pusher don't care
Ah, if you live or if you die.         ....


The dealer for a nickel
Lord, will sell you lots of sweet dreams
Ah, but the pusher ruin your body
Lord, he'll leave your, he'll leave your mind to scream.     ...


You know, I'd declare total war on the pusher man
I'd cut if he stands,
And I'd shoot him if he'd run
Yes, I'd kill him with my Bible
And my razor and my gun.

God damn, the pusher
God damn, the pusher
I said God damn, God damn the pusher man.


The Doors - Back Door Man

Doors – Back Door Man Lyrics

Wha, yeah!, c'mon, yeah, yeah, c'mon, yeah
Yeah, c'mon, oh, yeah, ma
Yeah, I'm a back door man, I'm a back door man
The men don't know, but the little girl understand

Hey, all you people that tryin' to sleep
I'm out to make it with my midnight dream, yeah
'cause I'm a back door man, the men don't know
But the little girls understand, all right, yeah
You men eat your dinner, eat your pork and beans
I eat more chicken, than any man ever seen, yeah, yeah
I'm a back door man, wha, the men don't know

But the little girl understand
Well, I'm a back door man
I'm a back door man
Whoa, baby, I'm a back door man
The men don't know
But the little girls understand
Songwriters: WILLIE DIXON
Back Door Man lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC

The Doors - Soul Kitchen

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PIZZAGATE: Why it was exposed just before the 2016 election

Posted by Conspiracy Cafe on February 26, 2017  ~ hehe 1 "faction" of the deep mafia~oso state ...rat~in  ON  tee other .... mean while back at the ranch ( that's U.S. folks)  mr/mrs a~merry~ka ...we's in the ....middle  ...maybe just  Maybe  ... We The Peeps ought ta DRAIN the WHOLE fucking ....swamp !      just a thought  :)r    ...Image result for mafia whacking pics


And who really blew it wide open

DHS Insider Blows PedoGate Wide Open! Arrests Coming—Only A Matter Of Time!

State of the Nation

What you are about to read is the extremely hidden back story of Pizzagate.

Truly, nothing of exceptional gravity and great import ever gets disseminated in the public domain except by purposeful design. That design, of course, can be of either divine or demonic origin, or both.* In both cases, there are always very good reasons for the extensive dissemination.

*Key Point: While the satanic powers within Deep State may have blown Pizzagate wide open for purposes of exerting even more power over their minions, perhaps the Highest Power is using the unprecedented revelations to save the child victims, as well as to shut down the global control mechanism (i.e. Pedogate) altogether.

Yes, there are now many instances when raw truth about very serious matters is being downloaded on the Internet, but even that information is put into the hands by those who are really in the know. And, because those ultimate controllers of information (also known as the Hidden Hand) want it disclosed at a particular time.

One type of truth which cannot be censored anymore is direct personal experience or secondhand accounts of events which are of a quite revelatory nature. However, even these are usually limited to a very narrow body of disclosures.

Especially when the information and/or data is so highly classified and radioactive, there is virtually always the Hidden Hand which has intentionally pushed the button of disclosure. Or, pulled the lever of exposure.

Pizzagate

With this understanding of how the world works in 2017, it ought to be crystal clear that the divulgement of Pizzagate just before the exceedingly contentious 2016 presidential election was deliberate. Very deliberate! How so?

As soon as the Democrats became aware that the election was going to be lost to Donald Trump, they panicked—BIG TIME! Recall that Hillary Clinton abruptly cancelled the big fireworks celebration planned for her victory party.

Two weeks before inauguration, Trump recalls Clinton’s canceled election night fireworks

At a level far higher than Hillary’s Campaign Chairman John Podesta, a major decision was made. That HUGE decision was directly related to the long-established contingency plan which was made deep in the bowels of Deep State. This highly secret plan was formulated specifically for implementation should Clinton lose the election.

The name of that contingency plan is now well known as the Purple Revolution.

Key Point: Please look closely at the following telling photo which captures the launching of the Purple Revolution. Both Bill Clinton and Tim Kaine are pensive in thought about their roles, whereas Hillary Clinton appears outright defiant. Of course, the attire speaks volumes as even Kaine’s wife (not shown) was dressed in purple.



US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton makes a concession speech after being defeated by Republican presidential-elect Donald Trump as her running-mate Tim Kaine(R) and former president Bill Clinton look on in New York on November 9, 2016. (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

Exactly what does the Purple Revolution have to do with Pizzagate?

In fact, Pizzagate has everything to do with the Purple Revolution.

It’s not every day that a full-blown revolution is carried out on American soil. The last one took place over 240 years ago and was a pretty big affair. It was also difficult to get many of the Minutemen to show up in force and on time for the First American Revolution. After all, the ill-equipped, underfed, inadequately uniformed colonists were quite busy farming land for food and running their vital businesses.

Fast forward to 2017! And to the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump.

The continuing Great Recession that began in 2008 has likewise put extraordinary pressures on everyone–the rich, the poor and the middle class alike. Because of this reality, Deep State had to do something quite extraordinary; otherwise, how would TPTB sufficiently man their Purple Revolution.

BEWARE: The Purple Revolution Comes To America…

…Courtesy of George Soros, the Clinton Crime Family, and the Obama Administration

This is precisely why they blew open Pizzagate just before the election. An unknown majority of top leaders — at every level — within the Democratic Party, as well as the Republican Party, have all been severely compromised via Pizzagate or by way of the much larger Pedogate.

As a matter of fact, the now notorious Podesta brothers — super-lobbyists Tony and John — are quite representative of the exceedingly depraved culture which predominates inside the Beltway, as it does in other power centers around the USA and the world-at-large. All it really takes is one criminal incident involving child sexual abuse for a politician to be ruined for life. This potential ruination hangs over his or her head for the remainder of their political career like Damocles sword. Consequently, these government and corporate leaders can be perfectly controlled to do whatever Deep State demands.

Multiply the coercion dynamic of blackmail and bribery, threats and intimidation, which inevitably result from Pizzagate involvement, times countless politicians and government officials, lawyers and lobbyists, judges and prosecutors, and you have a national (and global) network of ironclad control like none other in modern history. Whatever Deep State wants done, is done … at the appointed time, at the prescribed place and in the ‘right’ way according to established Deep State protocols.

The Timing of Pizzagate

One of the dead giveaways of this CIA-directed black operation, which also doubles as a massive ongoing psyop against the establishment, is the calculated timing just before Clinton’s loss. Many armchair analysts have suggested that her loss was due to Pizzagate. Not so, the ruling elites already knew that Hillary had lost the critical swing states well before November 8th of 2016. They also knew that in order to outright steal the election from Trump, they would have to conduct so much vote fraud and election theft that it would be impossible to conceal. Especially after conducting so many obviously fake polls and committing so many voter registration crimes, did they make a final decision to allow a Trump victory, and to execute their Plan B.

Plan B: The Purple Revolution

Who could disagree with the fact that there was, and is, no more effective way to get EVERYONE on board with waging a Purple Revolution than with the threat of exposure that comes with Pizzagate?

Just look at those high government officials and elected representatives who are incredibly transparent about fighting a war with the Trump Administration.

Hillary and Bill Clinton. Barack and Michelle Obama. Joe Biden and Tim Kaine. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. Maxine Waters and Elizabeth Warren. John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell.

Just how compromised these purple revolutionaries are with regard to Pizzagate criminality remains to be seen in court. Nonetheless, the most damning evidence is being fastidiously accumulated for the trials and sentencing to begin. Which also means that the hot phase of the Purple Revolution (PR) has been accelerated considerably. That means the great likelihood of an American Spring, sooner than later.

Will an American Spring take place in 2017? If so, the Trump Movement needs to lead the way.

 

______________________________________________________________

Special Note:

For those who do not yet get it, this is how the Purple Revolution is being fought. The entire clandestine leadership of the PR — from both main parties — has been carefully recruited from the ranks of Pizzagate offenders. International PR leaders, and there are many, have been drawn from the diverse pools of Pedogate perps. All of these highly visible movers and shakers know in their bones that they are literally in a fight for their lives. Hence, they will do everything humanly possible to staff their PR armies in record time and in record numbers. Many of their immediate reports have likewise been chosen because they have been tainted with serious Pizzagate crimes. Sometimes the various child sexual abuse crimes are “acting as an accessory” or “abetting child pornography” or“conspiracy to conduct child trafficking”; nevertheless, these folks will do anything and everything to avoid exposure and, particularly, criminal prosecution. They know that their lives can be destroyed in a New York minute through any association whatsoever with Pizzagate or Pedogate.*

*The following “Special Report” clearly delineates the difference between Pizzagate and Pedogate for those who are uninitiated in this area of research.

PIZZAGATE: A Special Report on the Washington, D.C. Pedophilia Scandal

______________________________________________________________

Conclusion

Because the Democratic side has conscripted so many, so easily to the cause of fighting the PR, and because the liberals, lefties and progressives have so much to lose, the Deep Statehas undoubtedly moved their plans of insurrection up on their calendar.

The entire DNC leadership is now facing existential threats, not merely the politics of personal destruction. When the truth comes out about their respective involvement in either Pizzagate or Pedogate, the whole world will reel in horror. These heinous crimes against the children of the United States and other nations will be too serious to ever forgive. Nor will they ever be forgotten by the present planetary civilization.

The sooner that President Trump closes this sordid and shameful chapter of American history, the quicker that other countries can begin protecting their children as well. President Vladimir Putin has already terminated the adoption of Russian children by Americans for this very reason, among other related issues.

The time is now to shut down Pizzagate in the USA, as well as expose Pedogate globally, so that Deep State finds itself in deep trouble. Only in this way can the seditious Purple Revolution be forever shut down.

State of the Nation February 18, 2017

Editor’s Note

Who doesn’t know by now that President Trump is holding the most powerful trump card in U.S. history—Pizzagate. Surely he knows that the single quickest way to “drain the swamp” is to remove every Pizzagate perp from the U.S. Federal Government and its numerous contractors. By exposing those who are completely controlled by Deep State — an all-pervasive, supranational entity that answers to no one — Trump can begin the business of governing. Until this is done, it will be an endless series of firefights and terror attacks, both figuratively and literally. Therefore, SOTN respectfully submits to the Trump Administration the following unsolicited advice. The 3 Pillars of Deep State Must Be Knocked Down Post Haste

Required Reading:

The Deep Back Story to the Worldwide Pedophilia Ring

Recommended Reading

PIZZAGATE: The Scandal That Will Take Down the Clintons, the Democratic Party and the U.S. Federal Government

Washington’s Blog Correctly Connects Pizzagate to Everything That’s Wrong In The World

References

Huge Breakthrough in D.C. Pedophilia Ring

PIZZAGATE: The Greatest Scandal of the Third Millennium

http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=66357#more-66357

MAY DAY! MAY DAY! MAY DAY!

Posted by Conspiracy Cafe on February 26, 2017  ~ hehe folks the "Mafia Whacking Wars" is HEAT~iN up folks  Oops


“American Coup D’état In Progress”

Special Report: Is an American Coup d’état in Progress?

The Deep State Conducts a Purple Revolution Against the Trump Administration

State of the Nation

There is now a full-scale clandestine revolutionary war being waged against the Trump Administration. The C.I.A. usually attempts a soft coup first at the direction of its masters in Deep State. When that’s not successful in effectuating a regime change, they know the territory has been sufficiently softened up for the hot phase of the revolution.

In these United States of America, that revolution is known as the ongoing but rapidly intensifying Purple Revolution. This seditious revolution began the very day that President Trump won the election on November 8, 2016, if not before.


KEY POINTS:

• Deep State will not permit President Trump to govern as POTUS.
• Deep State uses the C.I.A. and the Mainstream Media (MSM) to run interference at every turn against the Trump Administration
• Deep State will continue to prosecute the revolution until Trump is removed from power
• Deep State will eventually attempt to oust the entire Trump Administration

These preceding bullet points constitute the current NWO globalist agenda being implemented throughout the USA in direct opposition to the Trump Administration. In other words, when Assistant to the President and White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon said that the Mainstream Media (MSM) had morphed into the opposition party, he was speaking literally.

“Steve Bannon: ‘I Could Care Less’ About Repairing Relationship with ‘Opposition Party’ Media” — BREITBART

A Counter Declaration of War on the Mainstream Media

There you have it (see preceding link), the whole world is now witnessing an all-out war between the MSM and a sitting POTUS. This unparalleled conflict is not only being fought between the Mainstream Media and the Trump Administration, it’s occurring throughout the entire body politic of the USA and beyond.

The U.S. citizenry saw as never before the complete lack of integrity exhibited by the MSM during the entire 2016 election cycle. Candidate Trump exposed the lying media and avalanche of fake news with his every news conference and campaign stop. In so doing, the whole world is now aware that the MSM can never — EVER — be trusted again.

Because the MSM is the primary mouthpiece of Deep State, a highly consequential decision was made by its concealed leadership to remove Trump from power with great haste and recklessness lest their Global Control Matrix experience an unprecedented collapse. Deep State knows full well that it’s now in its death throes. And that such grave existential threats must be faced before its entire superstructure (and infrastructure) falls into it own footprint.

This 21st century “War of the Titans” has gotten so hot, in fact, that there is now no turning back for either side. IT WILL BE A FIGHT TO THE DEATH.

Because the Mainstream Media has been outed like never, the most likely outcome is that it will simply be shut down. The public domain is now replete with hard evidence proving treason and sedition perpetrated over many decades by the MSM. Once the American people have reviewed the relevant proof of high treason and crimes against humanity, it will only be a matter of MSM industrywide criminal prosecution.

Bear in mind that Deep State cannot function to any reasonable degree without total ownership and efficient functioning of the media. The C.I.A., as well as the other 16 US intelligence agencies, all require the media cover staunchly provided by the MSM. So does the Military-Industrial Complex, as does the much larger Government-Corporate Complex. Therefore, when the MSM finally crashes and burns, so will all of the other major entities which comprise the Deep State.

“MAY DAY! MAY DAY! MAY DAY!”

With this critical understanding it ought to be quite obvious that the next 120 days are pivotal for Deep State. Every single day that the Trump Administration is able to consolidate and increase its power, Deep State loses its influence throughout the US government and the world-at-large. Such a crucial attenuation of power will serve as the death knell of the Deep State within the American Republic.

Hence, there is now a great race against time … for both sides of this epic war. The agents of Deep State clearly hope that a soft coup will be successful through a presidential impeachment or by other means. The C.I.A. recently executed such a strategy to ‘peacefully’ remove Dilma Rousseff, the 36th President of Brazil.

Make no mistake about it, if a soft coup is not successful, the agents of Deep State will commence the hot phase of their Purple Revolution. Everything points to a massive May Day stealth event. An unrivaled National Mall rally in D.C. attended by the many misguided groups which make up the Democratic Party is already in the works.

An enormous May Day protest could be used to manufacture a context in which a Maidan type event takes place (remember the violent uprising in Kiev, Ukraine). The Illuminati are notorious for using dates and numerology by which to stage their revolutions and civil wars over centuries (e.g. May Day parades and terror events). Just as the engineered uprising in Kiev was surreptitiously utilized to force Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych into exile, a similar trigger point could be fabricated by which the Bolshevik Left goes really crazy and tries to chase Trump from the White House.

With their de facto leader Barack Obama leading the Purple Revolution quietly from behind, many Democratic factions have been adequately brainwashed by his unmatched cult of personality. The ultra-liberals, extreme left-wingers, fake progressives and DINOs (Democrats in name only) have all demonstrated that they will resort to violence — both verbal and physical — whenever necessary. Hence, a real May Day event, no matter when it is scheduled must be met with an overwhelming display of support for President Trump.

MAY DAY! Violent American Spring Planned With 3-Million Agitators Marching On Washington, DC

Much more importantly, perhaps the single most effective way of responding to a subversive May Day plot is to pre-empt it. The Trump Movement might need to mobilize like never before and converge on Washington, D.C. with a show of support and unity and numbers as never seen before in U.S. history. Such an impressive and incomparable show of public support might be all that’s needed to quell the brewing Democrat insurgency. It will also serve to put the cowardly liberals in their proper place, especially those hidden manipulators who are stoking the flames of insurrection.

A Civil War, a Second American Revolution or Both

Some are calling this ongoing soft coup a prelude to a full-blown civil war; others refer to it as the Second American Revolution against the tyrannical U.S. Federal Government that was purposefully created by the Obama and Bush administrations since September 11th, 2001.

There is no question that the present phase of hostilities was initiated by the Soros-Obama-Clinton faction which essentially represents the seditious face of Deep State. Deep State is the monolithic and all-pervasive rubric under which the globalist New World Agenda is being executed worldwide—24/7.

Key Point: Deep State is no respecter of national sovereignty; nor does it have any loyalty to any principle or people except globalization and the homogenization of populations across the planet. It’s primary goal is a New World Order overseen by a One World Government (OWG) which the agents of Deep State (DS) aim to foist on the world community of nations.

Given their fatally flawed agenda, it’s obvious that the United States of America is an essential cog in their machine. As the military arm of the New World Order, the USA is absolutely necessary to the black operations and running of Deep State; otherwise, DS is but a paper tiger. Hence, such an OWG harebrained scheme can only be accomplished with the total commitment of the U.S. Armed Forces. Which is why there is now both a revolution and civil war evolving on parallel tracks at the same time in real time.

As a matter of fact, the Soros-funded, Obama-led, Clinton-inaugurated civil war (also known as the Purple Revolution) is being instigated to short-circuit the authentic rebellion of We the People against Deep State and its horrific creation known as the Obamanation. This is an extremely important point [in brackets] which must be understood by every American patriots. [There is a HUGE difference between the seditious Purple Revolution against the nation and the We the People revolution against Deep State.] <—Again, This is a VERY IMPORTANT POINT

______________________________________________________________

Special Note:

For anyone who is uninitiated in this realm of revolutions and civil wars, the following post should be read and understood. Former CIA Officer Robert David Steele Lays Out The Purple Revolution Plan For those who prefer an audio-visual format, the YouTube that follows can be viewed and/or listened to. Former CIA officer: Flynn fired over high-level DC pedophile list The bottom line here folks is that we are entering an extraordinary period of tumult and volatility. The previously mentioned 120-day window of insurrection opportunity for Deep State is perhaps the most dangerous since the American Revolutionary War. Yes, it’s that precarious a quagmire which both sides are acutely of. And Pizzagate is the Trump card that can used to avert a violent takeover by the POTUS.[1]

______________________________________________________________

Conclusion

We the People have been sufficiently forewarned.

The Purple Revolution has been completely exposed as the treasonous enterprise that it truly is.

May Day has been predicted as a defining moment of the subversive the Purple Revolution led by Obama, Clinton and Soros.

Deep State has been revealed as a treacherous and dangerous global entity which can only exist with a perpetual war economy established planetwide.

With these realizations, it is imperative that We the People respond quickly and appropriately to these looming threats and dire eventualities.

Between now and the next installment in this series, every patriot ought to contemplate their unique role in this ongoing Second American Revolution. There is no way out of this epochal conflict; We the People must pass through it with an indomitable spirit and unwavering resolve.

And President Donald J. Trump must proceed with all deliberate speed to really “Make America Great Again”. His secret formula for accomplishing this noble endeavor: The 3 Pillars of Deep State Must Be Knocked Down Post Haste

State of the Nation February 19, 2017

Author’s Note

The following exposé explains how the Purple Revolution is being staffed as well as its direct connection to Pizzagate. This critical piece of their plan must be understood by the patriots so that they know what they are really dealing with.

The Critical Connection Between Pizzagate and the Purple Revolution

Editor’s Note

For those who question the all-out war between the Trump Administration and the MSM, the video and article below ought to erase all doubt.

VIDEO: Trump calls media ‘enemy of the American people’

Donald Trump savages media at Florida rally

Source

[1] DHS Insider Blows PedoGate Wide Open! “Arrests Coming”–Only A Matter Of Time!

Required Reading

The C.I.A. And Deep State Conspiracy Finally Exposed

Recommended Reading

DEEP STATE Fired NSA General Michael Flynn

References

The Mainstream Media Must Be Shut Down — ASAP!

MAINSTREAM MEDIA: The True Enemy Of The People

http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=66483#more-66483

I'll believe it when I see it. They are obviously up to something, but now President Trump is the lawful authority. To be this open about an event such as this can hardly go unnoticed by the authorities. I would expect ringleaders to be put under surveillance or at least get the proverbial knock on the door.

BREXIT AND REVITALIZING THE COMMONWEALTH: THE USA AS ASSOCIATE MEMBER?

In the aftermath of the BREXIT vote, I began to argue in blogs and in various interviews, that the next step geopolitically for Great Britain would be to play the soft power card, in the form of revivifying the British Commonwealth of nations. My reasons for thinking this was in the cards were various, and spread out over several  blogs and interviews. Here were some of those reasons: (1) elements of the British deep state, including apparently the Queen herself, were increasingly disappointed not only with the EU and the loss of national sovereignty, but with the unipolar and multicultural (read, Gramscian Marxist) direction things were going; (2) a significant segment of the British population was fed up with the growing Islamicization of Britain; and (3) Britain was pursuing, independently of the EU, it's own relationship and trading policy with China, hosting the state visit of Mr. Xi Jinping to that country, and joining, as a member of the board, China's Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank. Finally, (4) Britain continued to be alarmed at the growing power and influence of Russia, in particular Russia speaking openly about the West abandoning its core cultural principles and appealing directly to those elements in the West with decidedly traditional cultural sympathies. Russia was playing the soft power card, and playing it well.
In this context, I was arguing that the United Kingdom had certain unique advantages - all of them cultural - that the European Union, firmly under Germany's thumb, did not: Britain had dramatically influenced the expansion of an English-speaking culture, with English institutions, concepts of jurisprudence, and so on, over a vast area of the globe. Britain could, I argued, if it played its cards right, play that soft power card and create an immense bloc of economic and cultural interests. But this would be impossible under the aegis of the globaloney-multicultural-unipolar philosophy. The way to do this would be to stress the cultural heritage and institutions, and the British Commonwealth was ready-to-hand.
This last week, a number of regular readers of this website, particularly in the United Kingdom, shared an article which appears to confirm this analysis and prediction, and moreover, to do so in a very astonishing way:
While this article is fairly short, the first four paragraphs contain a number of bombshells that appear to support my arguments from months ago, rather substantially:
The United States could eventually become an "associate member" of the Commonwealth, according to plans being drawn up by the Royal Commonwealth Society.
The move, which is said to have the backing of the Queen, is believed to have come about because of US President Donald Trump’s love of Britain and the Royal Family.
With the UK making plans to leave the European Union (EU) officials are keen to build up international relations through the Commonwealth in an number of areas, including trade.
Director of the Royal Commonwealth Society Michael Lake told The Telegraph: "The UK rather left this treasure in the attic, and forgot about it because people were so glued to Brussels.” (Emphasis added)
I cannot help but think that since this plan "is said to have the backing of the Queen", that it may have been in the works for some time, since we all recall the story from last year, prior to the BREXIT referendum, that the Queen had invited Mr. Cameron's vice-premier to the palace for tea and dinner, during which the Queen allegedly asked him is he could name three incontestable benefits Britain was reaping from the EU. The message was clear: the Queen was casting a skeptical eye on the whole business.
There was another wrinkle that seldom gets mentioned: Germany's and France's (i.e., Merkel's and Hollande's) plans for a trans-European military. While no one was saying it, everyone was at least thinking it: a trans-European military would be as much under Berlin's thumb as the other areas and institutions of the E.U. were and are. For Britain, this of course brought back "memories." And this wrinkle I suspect is also at work behind the current willingness of the Royal Commonwealth Society not only to cast its attentions to the Commonwealth, but to America as an "associate member," for the article makes it clear that "officials are keen to build up international relations through the Commonwealth in an(sic) number of areas, including trade." One of those areas is, of course, defense and security. With NATO's future in doubt, watch for the Commonwealth to become the focus of British security policy, in conjunction with other Commonwealth members and proposed "Associate", the USA.
One key area here is trade, and here the Commonwealth affords Britain an opportunity that, again, the continental powers do not have, for the institutions of British law, in one form or another, are common to all Commonwealth countries, and additionally, form the basis of American law. This allows a unique "jump starting" position for trade deals. Complex trade agreements with countries with legal systems based outside of the history and development of British law do not have to be negotiated.
If indeed Ms. Le Pen wins her election bid in France, this will only exacerbate the crack-up of the E.U., and put tremendous pressure on Germany to re-arm independently. Britain, however, can draw on a history of mutual economic and security arrangements with the Commonwealth and the USA. And if Ms. Le Pen wins, watch for some interesting bi-lateral agreements to be made... think Edward VII here...
For the moment, it looks as if John Bull intends to play the soft power card, and so far, it appears to be playing it well.