A suicide bomber hit the Manchester (England) Ariana Grande concert overnight – and event that has claimed at least 22 lives with five dozen more injured.
UK prime minister Theresa May calls it another act of callous terrorist act, which obviously, it is.
As ISIS claims responsibility for the latest heinous affront to civilization, there’s a potential lesson to be learned about denial, obfuscation, media lies, and spin to be learned from how recent news events have strung together from the weekend forward…
(continues)
Let’s start with the string of headlines sampled before the attack in Manchester and see if you can figure out what I’m talking about:
ABC News: “ANALYSIS: Trump avoids phrase ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ in 1st Middle East speech.”
Daily Beast: “P.C. Trump Abandons ‘Radical Islamic Terror’.”
L.A. Times (OpEd): “Radical Islamic Terrorism: The dogma that didn’t bark in Trump’s speech.”
NY Daily News: “Trump’s speech in Riyadh puts ball squarely in court of Muslim-led governments to fight terrorism.”
Washington Post: “Radical Islamic terrorism,’ Trump said over and over. But not in Saudi Arabia.”
You see, somewhere in all this is a thread of something interesting. Maybe even downright disturbing. Almost like a psychological operation on the public is taking place.
We heard, for example, as long ago as Saturday and long before the Manchester attack: “McMaster: Trump might not use the phrase ‘radical Islamic terror’ in Saudi address.”
To be sure, lots of people are dead. But there remains an odd – coincidentalism (if that’s a word we can use) – that appears in the data: Trump backs off the use of R.I.T. and as soon as it happens, the R.I.T’s are killing people en masse.
It gives a dash of support to the notion that Radical Islamic Terrorism is a manipulation tool of unseen factions that don’t wish to show their hand directly.
As I said: The body count is real enough, but the media fore-spin on Trump’s language change obviously didn’t work out since radical terrorism is back with a vengeance.
It all reminds this old reporter of how the Viet Cong almost magically disappeared at the conclusion of the Vietnam War. Too young to remember?
History teaches us the VC, as they were called, were mainly a North Vietnamese-invented and backed insurgency:
North Vietnam established the National Liberation Front on December 20, 1960, to foment insurgency in the South. Many of the Vi?t C?ng’s core members were volunteer “regroupees”, southern Viet Minh who had resettled in the North after the Geneva Accord (1954). Hanoi gave the regroupees military training and sent them back to the South along the Ho Chi Minh trail in the early 1960s. The NLF called for southern Vietnamese to “overthrow the camouflaged colonial regime of the American imperialists” and to make “efforts toward the peaceful unification”.
Given the superficial media’s complicity during the Vietnam War, which involved going along with the NVA-orchestrated charade that the Viet Cong were spontaneously arising South Vietnam nationalists and patriots, we might want to be asking similar questions today. The one the (then liberal press) of the earlier period couldn’t seem to ask, or if told, didn’t want to believe or report, for example.
Yet, it’s all there: Proof that an apparent ultranationalist group could, indeed, be the “action arm” of a state actor.
We know back then it was the Hanoi government of North Vietnam. So my question – to which there is a point today – is to ask “Which state (or non-state) actor(s) could today be both feeding media and at the same time encouraging senseless violence like Manchester?”
I can assure you, you won’t like the answer. Especially if the answer follows in the ruts of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, perhaps back up a Silk Road, east from Xi’an and to a country that will have a huge long-term requirement for Middle East resources (oil, especially( and thus, has an immense long-term strategic interest in manipulating the battle space early-on through minions as it has done before.
War run stealthy and slow is still war, nevertheless.
Thus, the proximity of events might lead to informed speculation that if the West is drawn into more direct conflict with Islam along the continuous front around the entire Mediterranean, from thence into Europe and indeed to unvetted resettlers in the U.S. a certain country with a penchant for Island building will, as we say in chess, be in much better position to dominate the board.
We can’t say this is the case, of course. But the data bubble on the front end and the attack on the back-end has us open to new ways of seeing the battlespace.
Updating the Long Wave Outlook
Assuming the market advance chills toward the end of this week,, which would be reasonable given next week is only four workdays due to the Memorial Day holiday, we presently expect the long rally of the market from March of 2009 to end in mid to late August at a significant new high.
Once we are there, the only question on the table will be the speed and depth of the ensuing decline.
A good bet is that in the September/October period, the US will light off an attack on North Korea. As our military affairs expert warhammer suggests, the US is revealing some of it’s new tools in the arsenal well in advance:
“Over the weekend, the media overfed consumers with news of President Trump signing a massive arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Key strategic and diplomatic reasons for doing so were left out of the headlines – chief among them are:
– Announcing to the ever-nuclear ambitious Iran that there’s a new POTUS in town, and he’s not willing to let Iran have the run of the roost in the Middle East
– Positioning Saudi Arabia, along with Israel, as viable deterrents to expanded Iranian influence in the region
– Providing the Saudi’s with enough modern conventional firepower that they do not pursue developing or buying their own nuclear arsenal
– Soothing fears in Israel that the Saudi’s might wish to attempt developing or acquiring their own nukes
– Allow the Saudis to keep the chaos from spreading across Yemen from filtering into their kingdom
I found it interesting that the Air Force announced a ‘baby MOAB’ prototype, something not usually touted in the open media.
https://www.defensetech.org/2017/05/19/future-air-force-weapon-baby-moab/
By ‘outing’ this weapon, it opens the door for exporting it to certain trusted allies.”
And again, as in our first note of this morning, we see how at the tactical level there may be little functional difference between ultra religionists versus ultra nationalists. Different times, different battlespaces require different partisans, mainly.
As battlespaces stand to heat up in the September/October timeframe, it will leave us short-side players with lots of opportunities. So risk, reward, and force majeure is on tap for our Peoplenomics.com subscribers tomorrow.
Hard of Hearings: Comey Off
Other Useful Headlines
Enough of the deep thinking. Let’s go superficial like the SMS media:
Trump’s first budget has trillions in cuts . Wait…now the liberals are going to whine about being thrifty? OMG…what planet is this, again?
And if you’re working on your resume today? 16 high-paying jobs with fast-growing salaries. Also read Why IBM Just Told Its Remote Employees to Get Back to the Office.
Better get the resumes out fast though because Robots Could Wipe Out 40 Percent of Retail Jobs by 2027.
Now to the Useless
10 things you can do this morning to heal your anxiety. It will just be back tomorrow.
Microsoft Just Unveiled a Faster Surface Pro Tablet.
Now for the Hopeless
And if you hadn’t figured this out without help: How Instagram Could Be Hurting Your Mental Health.
Now it’s time to put on a coat and go outside and enjoy more of our global warming and climate change.
Trumps slashing trillions from the budget over the next ten years, but yet the numbers I’ve been reading state that over the next 10 years we will add 8 trillion more to the debt.
His b.s. about the wall and the border $2.6 billion when all he would have to do is issue an order which is probably still on the books since Ike was in, fining any employer $10 thousand for every illegal and thus save those billions of dollars which he won’t due to the fact that his class depends on those illegals as part of their profit
Where is the funding hid for the new B-4 which is so extreme that they refuse to make it public, using the con that if they did it might/may revel some of its secrets.
Trump may be better than Clinton but as far as putting together a budget cutting the military/industrial group he rate an F, and as far as his tax cuts and border dreams it will be little more than an add on to Reagans famous/infamous trickle down program that the people the working class are still waiting for…
Offensive? Speak for yourself, Jon. Better yet, don’t speak at all.
Medicaid cuts not Medicare which is for elders 65 and older.
Hahahahahaha…Jonand and Robert stop it your killing me!!! You are so blinded by hate that you don’t even get this. No one on the left has gotten Trump yet!! He is only offensive to the leftist idialogues.
Washington: Can’t tell a lie.
Nixon: Can’t tell the truth.
Trump: Can’t tell the difference.
Don’t try to be funny. It doesn’t work for you.
I thought it was funny
A historical comment on the Viet Cong…I grant they were a creature and tool of the north, however, they were almost eradicated in the 1968 Tet Offensive. They came out and fought head to head with a standing army (at the instigation of the north) and paid the price. After 1968, the war was carried on in the majority by NVA regulars.
The north did Tet as a win-win for themselves. First it was a huge political win against the USA, after Tet our goal became to get out, rather than win. Second, it eradicated the Viet Cong, who were both experienced guerillas and South Vietnamese. Had they not been eliminated, they would have expected/demanded a seat at the table in the post war government. The north-south cultural & political divide in Vietnam has a long history.
Those MSM liars should be imprisoned. I listened to Trump’s speech in SA and he at first tried to be tactful by referring only to “terrorists”, but eventually he DID use the term “radical Islamic terrorists” at least once. I distinctly remember this because of the distance my jaw dropped.
Another jaw dropper that hasn’t been mentioned at all by the rabid hordes who foam at the mouth over Trump’s alleged woman-hating misogyny is that, while listing the problems all nations must address, he TWICE said “oppression of women.” He said this to 51 Muslim leaders of nations with the worst record in the world of oppressing women! Has any other world honcho ever had the guts to say this directly to any Muslim leader, much less to 51 of them? I think not. Also, every time he mentioned the duty of leaders to provide a safe future and good job opportunities to the next generations, he specifically said “boys AND girls,” “men AND women.” But he’s a misogynist, right?
The few faces in the audience that were panned looked uneasy, as well they should have.
I think it’s useful to ask ourselves what do our enemies want?
Personally, I think it’s a mistake to mention RIT, ISIS, Al Qaeda as much as it is to say the name of a gang, a serial killer or mass murderer. Terror wins by terrorizing. They like nothing better than to dominate the news.
I agree with Trump – better to call them losers than what they want us to call them. Don’t give them what they want is my motto.
George, with Trump caught red-handed confessing to obstruction of justice, and his approval ratings in freefall, I too expect a war soon. Nothing like a war to boost those sagging numbers, and distract the swing voters from asking why they are getting skewered by his new budget. Mike.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, no one needs a war more than Trump other than GWB did on 9/10/2001.
All you have to do for verification is look at how the president used the military when he struck Syria and dropped the MOAB how his approvals went up and it removed Nunes’ midnight ride and Jason Chaffetz from the news cycle. If it was a serious threat we’d still be striking, but the goal was to distract so the president did what he needed to in order to change the headlines. For as much as he whines about the media, they are his lapdog and take his orders.
I’m happy with President Trump. He acts well internationally and owns his presidency, rather than apologizing for our country. He’s made mistakes politically, of a magnitude akin to leaving a toilet seat up. Big deal.
He’s mostly keeping his promises, and to the best of his considerable ability.
I’ll deal with his mistakes if he keeps working to drain the swamp. I’m far more concerned about the so-called members of CONgress, especially the likes of Schumer, et al. They are the real entrenched criminals.
@ Jon –
You really need to let go of your thinking that Trump is more evil than our other choice was, Hillary. Both were crap choices. Both lied. And now we are meandering down the same Neocon/PNAC path we have been on since Bush the 1st…
If you cannot see that the congress is completely owned by their lobbyist buddies, then you are blind. And Congress votes the laws into place. It doesn’t matter who is in the majority – the votes are bought on both sides of the aisle. Go look at the disclosed contributions by the PACs – they are hardly ever given wholly to a single party. Why? Well it’s a hedging op.
Let go of the Repub/Demo thing – it only serves you well if you are a billionaire. And besides – there are much better things to discuss and dwell on.
That’s where intelligence comes into play and I’m at a loss to explain, because it’s just too obvious what’s lacking.
Well, if Jon, Wave, AI and others on that side will do their part in taking down the Democratic party I’m sure the rest of us will be happy to contribute to the demise of the Republicans. Both sides are totally controlled by the banksters, first, and then the corporations. It may be a bit hard on Jon since that’s the side his bread is buttered on but surely with all the money they’ve shoved in his pockets he ought to be able to survive a political collapse and resurrection quite handily.
Jimmy Dore, despite his language, has some pretty sharp insights on why it’s stupid to follow either party’s line.
And follows in the trail blazer by George Carlin…
All hail George … take your pick.
“Which state (or non-state) actor(s) could today be both feeding media and at the same time encouraging senseless violence like Manchester?”
‘Follow the money,’ since NOTHING is senseless; It only appears that way.
It’s all I ever do. “War is money”; it’s the only phrase that matters in this world any more.
Alex Jon and Robert, Please tell us, so you truly feel that Hilary would have been a better President and we as a country would have been better off with Clinton than Trump? Second question and you feel that we are stronger as a countryand better off with Obama?
I guess you along with some others can’t read, I said yes he may have been better than Clinton, and of course if you don’t agree with his policy then you must ‘hate him” which is to an adult a wasted emotion, but I suppose those who haven’t crossed over into adulthood use the term as a viable answer.
NOW WHAT I do expect from Trump is the same I expected from Obama and that is to adhere to his campaign platform and his promises he made to the people,nothing more and nothing less….
So when did you predict the top this spring as I dreamt that wow George called the top this spring months in advance. Had not read your site in a long time either??
Been continuously tracking it on the Peoplenomics side. No point pearls before, well, you know.
Yeah, was not trying to get info for free actually subscribe, but dreamed it that you called the top – sooner than the posted run up on this side (which I thought was a forecast previously) -and in the dream I was stating to others yeah and George had put a dart at that point six months ago as one of the potential tops for the market.
Anyway will try not to divulge your stuff out here in public (which I do not use to invest as I am into live-stock and cheese)
The ultimate prepping once I get a methane digester going my only expense is to the humans who are partners in the operation. Essentially and the tax man.
Point was that the dream indicated a peak
I have top admit it’s a weird one.
As tyou know, the analysis of the topping process has been going on for a long time on the PN side. By my reckoning, we should top out in the PN Index around 19,980 and we’re in the 19550 area now, so what’s that? S&P 2,450’ish… maybe like 2,468?
George, that number you noted for the S&P isn’t that far away, considering the date you gave last week? What up? Has something changed? Or are you thinking a correction then the new high and that date from last week?
I think we get a correction 1st
Hey Mr. Ure,
Reading this and of course Peoplenomics tomorrow, how did people ride out the 1st great depression and how can people ride the next one out as it looks much more dangerous than the last one? This probably requires a novel length response but its worth asking (i think). If you would like me to stop asking so many questions, just let me know (seriously). I enjoy your work and content and i cant thank you enough!
PS – How do i get Robin Laundry’s Reports? Figure since you quote his work a lot, It would be worth also reading him too.
Obviously, I’m not George. My parents married in 1932 and did small time farming until around 1940 when they had to stop due to my father’s failing health. They moved to another state, to a town that was doing ok. Daddy worked in a gas station pumping gas and doing small repair jobs.
When the war hit, they moved to the nearest big city and since Daddy was 4F, he leased a gas station and did some better than ok during the war.
The answer is you have to be flexible and willing to move plus have multiple skills that people need, and then work hard.
Amen!
Re the bombing las night BBC postponed a new Sean bean series called broken cos Ariana used that WOR in her post bomb tweet.Synchronicity,coincidence or what? Queen didn’t cancel the garden party. Those to whom have evil done will do evil in return as sure as night follows day
Names and faces of those that lost their lives in Manchester – http://imgur.com/gallery/LxPX6.
I’d say make sure these pictures are plastered all over the walls and in front of the houses of the politicians that allowed this to happen, past and present, but that only works if they gave a damn about the people in the first place.
I hope none of the readers here have had a loved one or someone they knew sacrificed on the alter of “diversity”, “inclusiveness” or whatever p.o.s. buzzword our handlers use to insert this concept into our lemming brains. This is not how a melting pot works!