YEAR END REVIEW 2017

Hello Everyone!!!!  
   This is one of those group e-mails that are shot out at the last minute to 
wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS or whatever you celebrate (or If you celebrate 
anything at all) and a HAPPY NEW 2018!!! Sort of just realised that Christmas 
is tomorrow!! For those of you who are new to my mailing list I do this year-end 
review every year.I have been doing this for every year since 2004.These reviews 
are fairly lengthy so I reckon most of you probably don't even read it.
  Those of you who do,thank you. The review is available all year round on my
website at: http://hitsofalldecades.com/chart_hits/
    This year like last year and the year before I have images that shaped 2017.
Each one of these images will be addressed in my year-end review.
    Now I will begin the year-end review. Every year I start with the news and 
first discuss issues related to the USA and then I will discuss 
issues regarding other parts of the world. Some issues are intertwined as they 
involve more than one country.Then I do the obituaries,then sports,then 
entertainment and the closing.The topics look at several events of the past year.
So hold your breath now and let's begin by looking at what has transpired in this 
world that we live in over the past 365 days. 
   First we will take a look at a historical view of the USA.


REAL NEWS-NOT CNN 

INTRODUCTION
  The News I display here is not CNN,MSNBC or FOX News.It is real news.I will 
post things you will not read or hear in the mainstream media.
  Before you start it might be good to play "Bye,Bye Miss American Pie" by 
Don McLean from 1972.Then follow it up with David Bowie's "China Girl", as you 
read about "The Rise And Fall Of The American Empire"

go to:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5ecvBaqHBk

then go to:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrERLeFseDA


 


 


THE RISE AND FALL OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE
   Many Americans may not want to hear this but through out history all empires 
that rise also fall. The American empire is obviously in decline though many do 
not realize this fact. I could probably write a 500 page book on this topic.But 
for the sake of the year-end review I will provide a condensed version. 
 The American Empire is an empire founded on violence,racism and fear.Claiming 
that the USA is an empire based on democracy and rule of law is laughable at best.
This is just a smoke screen for spreading fear.
  In 1492 when Christopher Columbus landed in North America he did not land in 
the USA he landed in the present day Dominican Republic.He committed genocide on 
the native population of that Caribbean island.Because of this fact Columbus Day 
is now not celebrated in some US states.However,the Europeans who colonized the 
USA have seemed to take a page from the Christopher Columbus handbook.
  In 1607 the first English settlers settled in Jamestown,Virginia. Not long after 
they brought slaves from West Africa. They used guns,religion and fear to coerce 
the slaves into perform their duties on the big plantation. Many plantation owners
would refer to the passage in the Bible about the "curse of Ham" (Noah's son) to 
make the slaves believe their fate on earth is doomed.
  In 1776 the US declared it's independence from Britain.However,slaves were 
counted as 3/5 of a person. Although slaves couldn't vote counting them as 3/5 
of a person would benefit representation to representatives in states that had 
large slave populations.
  In 1835,at the end of two long articles about religion and slavery in the 
"Charleston Mercury",it was said that both the Old and New Testament give 
permission to hold others as slaves.In the Old Testament,God and the Patriarchs 
approved.As for the New Testament,Jesus and the Apostles show that slavery is 
permissible.Therefore,slavery,to those who wrote the article,was not an 
anti-Christian institution.It was just the opposite.Furthermore,they added,it 
is impious to say slavery is anti-Christian because such a conclusion contradicted
God.
 After the abolition of slavery religion was used again to justify segregation.
For hundreds of years,once again the so-called "curse of Ham" was frequently 
taught by religious leaders as the source for racial differences,and in more 
recent times was seized on as a Biblical excuse for segregation and slavery.
But really,bigotry knows no color and religion was used to justify hatred toward 
Catholics from Ireland and Germany immigrating to the United States in the 
mid-19th century:Some believed that the Catholic Church was the Whore of Babylon 
in the Book of Revelation.In his best-selling book of fiction "A Connecticut 
Yankee In King Arthur's Court",author Mark Twain indicates his hostility to the 
Catholic Church.He admitted that he had "...been educated to enmity toward 
everything that is Catholic."
 This is what happens when people cloak their bigotry with the Bible. One would 
think that by this point in US history,society as a whole would see through this 
facade of religion covering for bigotry,but time and time again it continues to 
happen.
  During the 19th century the USA expanded west. Again, following Christopher 
Columbus' playbook many native American were annihilated,using their guns. At the
beginning of the 19th century the USA acquired a big chunk of land from France
while France was involved with it's own wars in Europe. 
 Then in the 1830s oil was discovered in Texas and a war was started with Mexico.
"Remember The Alamo". In the 1980s I was living in an apartment in Nevada and an 
American citizen of Mexican extraction had a sign on the wall in his apartment 
that read "FUCK THE ALAMO". He viewed the war in Texas as nothing more than US 
imperialistic aggression.
  The in 1840s the US started another war with Mexico focusing this time on 
California. Funny how in 1849 gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in California.
  Obtaining natural resources is a good reason to go to war.
  On May 10,1869 the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads met at 
Promontory Point,Utah which now linked the USA by rail from New York to 
San Francisco.
  But having a country that goes from one ocean to another was not enough for 
Americans.They had to go beyond.In 1893 the USA overthrew the government of 
Hawaii. Then in 1897 the Spanish-American War saw the USA went beyond Hawaii 
and acquired the Marshall Islands,Samoa,Guam and the Philippines. Between 1897 
and 1945 the Philippines were part of the USA. Still today the USA maintains 
military bases in the country.
  It once again is laughable. The Chinese occupy a few islands off of their 
mainland and the USA considers this as an act of Chinese aggression.
   But it is not aggression for the USA to occupy islands thousands of miles 
from their shores.
  By the time World War II rolled around the USA was pretty much the big boy 
on the block.Although many historians see the 1956 Suez crisis as the turning 
point. This crisis was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel,followed 
by the United Kingdom and France.The aims were to regain western control of 
the Suez Canal and to remove Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser from power.
After the fighting had started,political pressure from the United States,the 
Soviet Union and the United Nations led to a withdrawal by the three invaders.
The episode humiliated Great Britain and France and strengthened Nasser.
  On October 29.1956,Israel invaded the Egyptian Sinai.Britain and France 
issued a joint ultimatum to cease fire,which was ignored.On November 5 Britain 
and France landed paratroopers along the Suez Canal.The Egyptian forces were 
defeated,but they did block the canal to all shipping.It later became clear that 
the Israeli invasion and the subsequent Anglo-French attack had been planned 
beforehand by the three countries.
   The three allies had attained a number of their military objectives,but the 
Canal was now useless.Heavy political pressure from the United States and the 
USSR led to a withdrawal.U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had strongly warned 
Britain not to invade;he now threatened serious damage to the British financial 
system by selling the US government's pound sterling bonds.
Historians conclude the crisis "signified the end of Great Britain's role as one 
of the world's major powers".
  After World War II Britain had to rid itself of many of its colonies.The British 
Empire had fallen.The USA became the major world power-politically, militarily 
and economically.
  The Brenton Woods Conference set the USA up for being the #1 economic power.
The Bretton Woods Conference,formally known as the United Nations Monetary and 
Financial Conference,was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied 
nations at the Mount Washington Hotel,situated in Bretton Woods,New Hampshire,
to regulate the international monetary and financial order after the conclusion 
of World War II.
   The conference was held from July 1-22, 1944.Agreements were signed that, 
after legislative ratification by member governments,established the International 
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Monetary 
Fund (IMF).
  The Bretton Woods Conference had three main results:(1) Articles of Agreement 
to create the IMF,whose purpose was to promote stability of exchange rates and 
financial flows.(2) Articles of Agreement to create the IBRD,whose purpose was 
to speed reconstruction after the Second World War and to foster economic 
development,especially through lending to build infrastructure. 
(3) Other recommendations for international economic cooperation. The Final Act 
of the conference incorporated these agreements and recommendations.
   This clearly put the USA at #1 ecomically.The Suez crisis put the USA at 
#1 politically. The USA became #1 militarily under the administration of President 
Eisenhower in the 1950s when the military-industrial complex was created.In 1953 
US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles created what people now know as the 
military-industrial complex.On January 17,1961 when US President Dwight David
"Ike" Eisenhower in his farewell speech warns the world to be aware of the 
military-industrial complex.He knew exactly what he was talking about because 
his Secretary of State from 1953-1959 created the monster.He was basically saying 
that when the military and big business go to bed together wars will be fought 
and many people will die for unjust causes. Ever since World War II the USA has 
always been involved in war (Cold War,Vietnam.Wat on Drugs,War On Terror,Iraq,
Afghanistan,Nicaragua and many more) or creating wars. The USA has about 1000 
military bases all over the world and spends ten times as much on defense as 
Russia but considers Russia a threat.The US spends more on propaganda for the 
military defense than it spends on education.
  The war machine works like this.Defense contractors build factories all over 
the USA.This means jobs.Jobs equal votes. So if a bill comes up in Congress 
advocating war a politician will more than likely vote for it. To do otherwise 
may result in people losing jobs who the voters will blame it on the politician 
at the ballot box.After all,the military and defense contractors only care 
about the bottom line.
  In the 1980s the USA openly supported Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War. However,
covertly the USA supported Iran.Remember,Oliver North in the 
Iran Contra Scandal.Years later when the US invaded Iraq then these same weapons 
which were sold to Iraq would be pointed at US soldiers.Defense contractors don't 
care.
  Now the USA is also instilling fear into the Europeans about Russian aggression,
advising them to buy their weapons to protect themselves.
  During the 1950s,1960s and 1970s (excluding the wars) life was good for the 
average American.In the 1980s when Ronald Reagan became president this began the 
decline of the US empire.First of all he created Reaganomics.He claimed giving 
tax breaks to the wealthy will benefit all because the wealth will trickle down.
For example he claimed if a factory owner got a tax break he'd be able to purchase
extra machines.Then he would be creating more jobs.It would be nice if that did 
happen. But instead the factory owners put their money they received from their 
tax breaks into tax shelters.
  Also Reagan had laws passed that allowed CEOs of big corporations to purchase 
their own stock options. Before Ronald Reagan became president a CEO would try 
to work with management & labor to try and improve productivity and the quality 
of the work place.But once the CEOs could buy back their own stock options.
Reducing the size of the labor force,reducing wages became a greater priority.In 
other words do whatever needs to be done to increase profits. In 1970 the CEO of 
a big corporation (i.e. "Walmart") would earn about 40 times as much as the entry 
level associate. Today the top CEO at Walmart earns 1000 times as much.In the 
1950s,60s & 70s at least each year the USA had at least 3% growth.Since Reagan 
no year has had 3% growth.
  Also other industries have been deregulated.In the 1970s there were over 200 
companies controlling the media in the USA.Today there are six. University 
tuition has skyrocketed. University graduates are up to their eyes balls in debt 
from student loans which they can't be resolved of their obligation to repay 
their loan in bankruptcy court.This prevents university grads from purchasing 
homes,marrying and starting families.It is no surprise many millennials prefer 
a socialist government.See:
http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article182765121.html
   Without mentioning the mass shootings at Sandy Hook-2012,Orlando-2016,
Las Vegas-2017 at least one mass shooting occurs every day in the USA. A mass 
shooting is defined as a murder of at least 4 persons. Due to the fact that the 
NRA (part of the military-industrial complex) has politicians of both parties
in their pocket,the US government has no intention of curbing this epidemic. 
More people have died from gun violence since 1968 in the US than in all the 
wars
 combined-see:https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/las-vegas-shooting/more-americans-killed-guns-1968-
all-u-s-wars-combined-n807156
  Not only does the military-industrial complex have the politicians in their 
pocket.They have Hollywood in their pocket. The Rambo movies were used to 
whitewash history by portraying the Americans as the victors in the Vietnam War. 
More recently the Pentagon wrote a book about the Vietnam War but never mentions 
anything about all the protests or all the bombings of recruitment 
centers. If the military-industrial complex were to admit the truth they'd have 
to answer the question-WHY? The answer-perpetual war feeds the military industrial
complex. Although over 58.000 Americans and over 3 million Vietnamese died during 
the Vietnam War,this was irrelevant to the people of the military-industrial 
complex.One defense contractor who manufactured helicopters
was about to file for bankruptcy during the Vietnam War,but due to the war this 
never happened. This mentality continues through to today in Iraq, Afghanistan, 
Syria and Somalia.As long as the USA stays in perpetual war Lockheed Martin and 
McDonald-Douglas improve their bottom lines.That is what is most important to them.

   Before I continue go 
to:https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/34fnw9/what_are_the_characteristic_
signs_of_a_declining/
and look at what historians describe as the seven characteristics of a declining 
empire and we will see how they apply to the USA.

   1-The empire should be attempting to reform itself; however, there are clear 
signs that reform has stalled in key areas, has not successfully addressed 
underlying problems, and that elites are deeply divided on the question with a 
strong reactionary cohort. The Ottoman Empire, Tsarist Russia and the Soviet 
Union are good examples of this (though the USSR's status as an empire is 
sometimes pejorative and usually debated, it should be noted).
   2-The personality and characteristics of the monarch, emperor or empress can 
be key. The degree of personal power they've accumulated in their person means 
that weak, ineffectual monarchs (Tsar Nicholas II), monarchs obsessed with 
building a navy (Kaiser Wilhelm),older monarchs out-of-touch with present 
realities (Franz Josef) or well-meaning reformers unaware of the flood they're 
about to unleash (Mikhail Gorbachev), can have an unusually powerful effect in 
tipping an empire into decline in the first place or hastening the process along.
   3- Tax revenues may decline or stagnate while costs (for modernizing a military,
importing machine tools to industrialize the economy, paying off debt 
from past wars, etc.) should escalate, placing the state in a fiscal bind. 
This can stress the state's capacity to defend itself and limit expenditures on 
public works and improvements.
   4-A notable short-term change in daily life takes place for ordinary people. 
Maybe the price of bread suddenly escalates. Maybe the army cracks down 
on protesters in a way they hadn't before, shooting and killing some this time. 
There are shortages of staple goods; people had gotten used to long lines 
and rationing for other things before, but there had always been potatoes and beer.
But suddenly bare shelves.
   5-Scandals at 'the top' the people gossip and joke about, revealing corruption 
or moral foibles at the top. Nothing that causes revolutionary outrage, but which 
breaks the myth and magic of monarchy. I'm thinking particularly of the allegedly 
perverse sexual access Grigoriy Rasputin was said to have enjoyed to the Tsarina 
and her lady-in-waiting during World War I while Nicholas II was away at the 
front, but other examples from the other empires exist.
   6-Military defeats. The fundamental responsibility of an empire, like a state,
is to protect its subjects/citizens and, often, to project power in 
a way that burnishes the reputation of the empire and subjects' 'buy-in' and 
pride in belonging to the empire. The USSR in Afghanistan,the defeats in 
WWI that toppled Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans,the poor performance 
and humiliating defeats the Russian Army suffered in Galicia and Poland-they all 
strike a blow at the prestige and competency of the empire.
   7-Dissatisfied fringe elites. I'm making up that term for now. Essentially, 
empires are by nature multi-national, multi-ethnic, multi-religious,etc. 
They're multi-. And therefore, while they might have a 'core' group (or even 
two - see Austria-Hungary!) they also rely on fringe elites in the Baltic 
republics, or in Bohemia, or in Palestine, to help keep the peace and in-flow 
of tax revenue at a reasonably low cost of administration.Given that another 
characteristic of empires in decline might be fiscal problems, empires in decline 
are uniquely vulnerable to fringe elites' desire for increased autonomy and 
control of tax revenue/political independence for themselves. Hence Tsarist 
Russia and the Soviet Union saw a somewhat similar pattern unfold in 1918/1990-91 
as outlying regions, responding to crisis in the imperial center, began to 
withhold tax revenues and assert independence, which only further weakened the 
empire and deepened the crisis at the center, which further stimulated 
actual autonomy in the periphery in a downward spiral of rapid decline.
   Further the top one percent are committing genocide on their own people.
See:https://www.thenation.com/article/naming-americas-own-genocide/
Even in a Bloomberg report this past November-The Gap Between Rich and Poor May 
Be Reaching Its Peak 
see:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-14/credit-suisse-sees-reversal-of-fortunes-in-wealth-creation
In Fort Lauderdale,Florida a 93 year old veteran was arrested for feeding homeless
people.
See:https://www.local10.com/news/local/fort-lauderdale/arnold-abbott-vows-to-continue-feeding-homeless-in
-fort-lauderdale-despite-dwindling-funds
This Bloomberg report claims it is beneficial for the top one percent if 
the poor people die young.This is why they attack this 93 year old man for 
feeding the homeless people.If poor people die young the government does not have 
to provide them with Medicare or Social Security and the big companies don't have 
to pay out pensions.
  The pharmaceutical companies benefit too from this.They charge exorbitant 
prices for drugs that are so expensive that the middle class person can not afford 
these drugs.That is why the top one percent doesn't want universal health care.You
seriously don't believe that some white cracker is going to want to spend money 
to keep black people alive.Being there is no universal health care in the USA,the 
poor rely on hospital emergency rooms for medical party.However,the TEA party 
wants this opportunity to be no longer available to the poor.The TEA party 
believes if the poor don't have money for medical care they should die.
  The police now have licenses to kill.They get caught on camera killing poor 
people and don't even get charged.The ones that do get charged later get acquitted
by a corrupt judicial system.
  With the US government making RT America register as a foreign agent.This is 
the governments first step to suppressing voices that don't follow the 
government's narrative (like CNN,MSNBC or FOX). After RT America they will 
probably be stifling social media sites with opposing opinions like "Jimmy Dore" 
and "The Real News."  Also abandoning "net neutrality" and having Google decide 
what is fake news or not fake news is further evidence of the government 
endeavoring to suppress views that contradict theirs.
  People say "You know how good you are by your enemy not your friend.
If the USA had a viable counter-narrative to that of RT they would not be trying 
to censor RT. This is similar to the Soviets during the cold War repressing 
"Radio Free Europe".
  The top 1 percent are not only attacking the poor,they are also attacking the
middle class. Right now the USA has two major political parties that don't
have the interests of the common person in mind on their platforms. You have 
third parties but the main stream media does not provide them with any platform 
and out of fear most people vote for one of the two candidates from the major 
political parties. In the 2016 election choosing between Hillary and Trump is 
like choosing between syphilis and gonorrhea.
  The recent tax bill approved by the US Congress increases taxes for the middle 
class (people earning between 50,000 to 75,000 USD) and decreasing taxes for 
people earning over 3 million dollars a year. The middle class can't afford to 
pay a lobbyist $300,000. To have congress get them a tax break.
  Trump has appointed people to the EPA who want to destroy the agency.So that 
just the poor and the middle class will have poor and unhealthy air to breathe 
and unhealthy water to drink.
  The prices for homes rise while wages stay stagnant. This hits home for me.I 
am a 64 year old US citizen living in Thailand.I can not afford to buy a home 
on the USA and I have no desire of living with family members in the USA.But in 
Thailand I live all alone in a three-story home.I will probably be spending my 
golden years here. This probably explains my harsh anti-USA rhetoric.
  Also the infrastructure in the USA is worse than that of a third world country.
The USA spends more money on defense than the next 16 countries 
in the world combined.That explains why the nation's infrastructure and health 
care is shit.
  What is going on now is similar to how the Nazis behaved just before they 
were defeated. They were selling gold and clothes from Holocaust victims.Like 
the Nazis the USA now thrives on their own citizens' death.

   When they came for the socialists I did not speak out.I did not speak out because I am not a socialist. 
      When they came for the trade unionist I did not speak out.I did not speak out because I am not a trade unionist. 
     When they came for the Jews I did not speak out.I did not speak out because I am not Jewish.
   When they came for me no one could speak out.

   The USA is now trying to cling on to its hegemonic control as the world's 
only superpower. However there is a rising power.September 11,2001 was a blessing 
for China. Before September 11 (even today) the USA was the biggest basher of 
China. However,September 11 came and the USA became obsessed with dropping bombs 
on men with beards. When this happened China went to Latin 
America and Africa and made all kinds of trade agreements.
  In a little over 40 years China has pulled over 800 million people out of 
poverty. How many people has the USA put into poverty or killed and murdered with 
their bombs.Here in Thailand I watch Chinese television (CGTN) and there are still 
people living in poverty. They have programs on the channel showing how the 
Chinese government is planning to get these people out of poverty. They are 
building drones to send food and medical supplies to people living in impoverished 
rural areas. While in the USA they go to Niger to establish
drone military bases so they can spy and drop bombs on people.
  In about six years China built high speed railway all over the country. 
Having more high speed rail than the rest of the world combined.
  The 19th national congress of the Communist party of China (which I will 
discuss in more detail further down) met at the Great Hall of the People, 
Beijing,between October 18 and 24 in 2017.2,280 delegates represented the 
party's estimated 89 million members convened to discuss China's future for at 
least the next five years. One of the topics of primary interest was the "One 
Belt and One Road Initiative".This is like a multi-national trade agreement 
between many Asian,African and European nations.
  Also China is now allowing people to trade oil in gold or Chinese yuan.The 
Chinese have started BRICS and their own bank to counter the IMF.BITCOIN has 
also been helpful in helping countries,who get strong armed by US sanctions,to 
circumvent these sanctions. 
  Right now China is advancing so quickly that they have left the USA in the 
dust. The only thing the USA has going for the nation is a strong defense.But is 
it really all that good. You make a bomb,once it explodes it has served its 
purpose and it is worthless.You build a bridge or a road you will have that for 
some time.
  The Spanish had Catholicism as the empire's soft power.The "free market" was 
the soft power for the British.The US has used "Democracy and Rule of Law" as 
their soft power. But with vote rigging,torture,water boarding,CIA prisons, 
spying on people, dropping bombs on innocent civilians and illegally invading 
foreign countries,the USA's soft power has turned to shit.They are not the guy 
with the white hat,they are more like Tony Soprano.
  Their military isn't all that mighty. North Korea saw what the USA did to 
Libya and Iraq.So they nuclearly armed themselves.Now with all their might they 
will yell,holler and scream but they will not invade North Korea. Perhaps more 
countries in the future will arm themselves with nuclear weapons.So much for the 
strong mafia style rule being orchestrated by the USA.
  The big military in more ways than one will destroy the American empire. This 
is what happened in the Soviet Union. When an empire has to provide a big 
military budget they have to sacrifice other things.That is why the infrastructure 
in the USA is like shit,why they are too cheap to provide a decent wage and 
health care for it's citizens.China knows war is no good.They also don't believe 
on interfering with the domestic matters of other countries. China has even 
written books on how they plan to overtake the USA as the World's superpower. 
One of the ways they claim is that many countries will get tired of being arm 
twisted by the USA and they will run to China for protection.
  In the past I have predicted a 3rd World War. That was premised upon the 
assumption that Hillary Clinton would be president.It still is a strong 
possibility. The USA in the hope of clinging on to their world's dominance may 
invoke a war because the victor's of war usually reap the spoils.However, 
although the USA spends 10 times as much on defense as China, the Rand 
Corporation Think Tank in the USA thinks the US could lose a war to China. 
See:https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1140.html
The computers and technology in China is so far advanced to that of the USA that
easily and more quickly they would be able to cue in on America's vulnerabilities.
  At the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,Chinese 
president Xi Jinping is planning for China to be the World Superpower by 2050. 
It may be sooner.The US is now 20 Trillion dollars in debt.When US debt gets to
40 or 50 trillion which should happen around 2025 or 2030 that's when China 
will takes over. If I live to be 100 I should die with China as the world 
Super power.
   Jim Rogers a businessman,investor,traveler,financial commentator and author in 
2007 is quoted as saying: 
                    "If you were smart in 1807 you moved to London, 
                     if you were smart in 1907 you moved to New York City 
                     and if you are smart in 2007 you move to Asia."
In December 2007,Rogers sold his mansion in New York City for about 16 million
USD and moved to Singapore.Rogers claimed that he moved because now is a 
ground-breaking time for investment potential in Asian markets.Rogers's 
daughters speak fluent Mandarin to prepare themselves for the future.


  The future may not be so gloomy for Americans.When China becomes #1 you won't 
hear loud mouth obnoxious Americans shouting "We are number two.We are number two."
Look at the French and the British.The British enjoy the best music in the 
world-Beatles,Rolling Stones.Led Zeppelin,Pink Floyd,Elton John,Adel & 
The Spice Girls.Both Britain and France have good social and health programs and 
nearly all their citizens live comfortable life styles.So the best may be yet 
ahead for the USA.

POLL:USA GREATEST THREAT TO WORLD PEACE
  The greatest threat to world peace is not Russia,not China,not North Korea,not 
Iran,it is the USA.These are the results of a survey conducted where the 
respondents were from 30 countries.Most of these countries are considered America's
so called friends (Canada,UK,Australia)
See:https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/08/07/polls-us-greatest-threat-to-peace-world-today.html
  On August 1,2017,Pew Research Center has issued results of their polling of 30 
nations in which they had surveyed,first in 2013,and then again in 2017,posing a 
less-clear but similar question (vague perhaps because they were fearing a similar 
type of finding,embarrassing to their own country,the USA),
in which respondents had been asked "Do you think that the United States" power
and influence is a major threat,a minor threat,or not a threat to (survey country)?"
and which also asked this same question but regarding "China," and then again but 
regarding "Russia," as a possible threat instead of "United States". 
(This wasn't an open-ended question;only those three nations were named as 
possible responses.)

  On page 3 of their 32-page pdf is shown that the "major threat" category was 
selected by 35% of respondents worldwide for "US power and influence",31% 
worldwide selected that for "Russia's power and influence," and also 31% worldwide 
said it for "China's power and influence".However, on pages 23 and 24 of the pdf 
is shown the 30 countries that had been surveyed in this poll,
in both 2013 and 2017,and most of these 30 nations were US allies;only Venezuela 
clearly was not.None of the 30 countries was an ally of either Russia or China 
(the other two countries offered as possibly being "a major threat").And, 
yet,nonetheless,more respondents among the 30 sampled countries saw the US as "a 
major threat",than saw either Russia or China that way.

  Furthermore,the trend,in those 30 countries,throughout that four-year period,
was generally in the direction of an increase in fear of the US' increase in fear 
of the country that had been overwhelmingly cited in 2013 by people in 65 countries 
in WIN/Gallup's poll,as constituting,in 2013,"the greatest 
threat to peace in the world today".

    Consequently:though WIN/Gallup never repeated its question,the evidence in 
this newly released poll,from Pew,clearly suggests that the percentage of people 
in the 65 nations that WIN/Gallup had polled in 2013 who saw the US as being "the 
greatest threat to peace in the world today" would be even higher today than it 
was in 2013,when 24% of respondents worldwide volunteered the US as being the 
world's most frightening country.

     Perhaps people around the world are noticing that,at least since 2001,the 
US is wrecking one country after another:Iraq,Afghanistan,Libya,Syria and Ukraine.
Which is next? Maybe Iran? Maybe Russia? Maybe Venezuela? Who knows?
    And this country has just increased its "defense" spending,which already 
is ten times China's,and nine times higher than Russia's.Do the owners of 
America's military-industrial complex own the US government,and own the US "news
media,to permit this rabid military to control the government's budget,in a 
"democracy"?

JANUARY 6,2017 ODNI REPORT:DEMOCRATS DESERVE LOSING THE 2016 ELECTION

 On Friday,January 6,2017 The US intelligence community released the unclassified 
findings of its investigation into what it says was Russian meddling in the 2016 
presidential election,hours after President-elect Donald Trump received a briefing 
on the probe.



  The ODNI devoted seven pages to RT (Russia Today) and its influence on the 
election "by serving as a platform for Kremlin messaging to Russian and 
international audiences." The report claimed "Russian media made increasingly 
favorable comments about President-elect Trump as the 2016 US general 
and primary election campaigns progressed while consistently offering negative 
coverage of Secretary Clinton."
   RT's pro-Trump campaign began in March 2016, according to the ODNI,by 
"consistently" casting Trump "as the target of unfair coverage from traditional 
US media outlets" that were "subservient to a corrupt political establishment."
   The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released the report 
called "Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections".
The report did not provide any hard evidence of Russian interference,relying 
instead on analyses from the CIA,FBI and NSA that drew on intelligence collected 
by the three agencies. The CIA and FBI have "high confidence" in the results of 
the report, while the NSA only has "moderate confidence."
   The key judgments made by the US intelligence community came from "a body of 
reporting from multiple sources that are consistent with their understanding 
of Russian behavior," which was based on "the behavior of Kremlin-loyal political 
figures,state media and pro-Kremlin social media actors, all of whom the Kremlin 
either directly uses to convey messages or who are answerable to the Kremlin." 
Similar tactics, the ODNI concluded, were also used to drive "consistent,
self-reinforcing narratives" about Ukraine and Syria.
   As per the report,high confidence is defined as judgments "based on high-quality
information from multiple sources," while moderate confidence means the 
information is "credibly sourced and plausible but not of sufficient quality or 
corroborated sufficiently to warrant a higher level of confidence." 
   There are several things I find disturbing about this report.For one this  
report was conducted by the CIA.The same CIA that said in 2002 that Sadam Hussein 
had weapons of mass destruction.Which turned out to be false.Yet we should believe
the CIA.



   Further,James Clapper released this report for the NSA.The same James Clapper 
who lied before the US Congress in 2013 when he said under oath that the NSA 
doesn't conduct massive surveillance on US citizens. Edward Snowden later proved 
this to be false.Clapper lies to congress and nothing happens to him.While 
Snowden reveals the truth and is living in exile in Russia facing many years in 
prison back in the USA.

    Now when the NSA says they have "moderate confidence" that means they do not 
know. They only have jealously. Julian Assange has stated on numerous occasions 
that the Russians were not involved in hacking the DNC.Who do you believe Assange 
or a man who has lied to congress under oath?

   Another disturbing fact to this report is when it says:
     "Russian media made increasingly favorable comments about President-elect 
Trump as the 2016 US general and primary election campaigns progressed while 
consistently offering negative coverage of Secretary Clinton."
  That statement implies that Americans are unable to make comprehensive decisions
insulting their intelligence.
  What is even more frightening is that this report may be used as a pretext for 
censorship.Then Americans will only have access to the narratives being 
orchestrated by CNN,ABC,MSNBC,Fox (so-called) News,the Washington Post,New York 
Times and other outlets of the main stream media.
     This fiasco started last year when Wiki-Leaks released the John Podesta 
emails revealing that the DNC stole the primaries away from Bernie Sanders.Rather 
than addressing the substance of the emails Hillary Clinton attacks the messenger 
by accusing Russia.
   Then when Hillary lost the election in November President Obama jumped on the
bandwagon because the election was a referendum on his legacy. He acted like a 
petulant child by trying to box Trump in by creating tension in US-Russian 
relations by doing such things like banning drilling in the Arctic,imposing 
sanctions on Russia and ordering Russian diplomats and their families to leave 
the USA in 72 hours. Obama leaves the White House on January 20 and he is 
slamming the door while leaving feces on the welcome mat for Trump.
  The US media had no problem going along for the ride. After all,they were making 
avorable comments about Hillary just like RT was making favorable comments about 
Trump.
  Now,the NSA,CIA and FBI have no problem promoting the propaganda. After all 
they are part of the war machine and the war machine needs a boogie man.As long 
as the USA can create a narrative that Russia is nefarious many countries 
especially in Europe would be more than willing to purchase weapons,aircraft and 
bombs which increases the bottom line for defense contractors.
   All this is not good for the US electoral process nor is it good for US-Russian 
relations. It is also not good for the world. Remember, Russia has nuclear weapons 
and it might not be good for "Ronald McDonald" to continue poking the 
"Dancing Bear". 
  All this has occurred because the Democrats are angry about losing the 2016 
election and they are digging their own grave. They are just whistling in the 
wind.There was a much more viable issue the Democrats could have raised to 
protest the "Trump" victory. This is a report submitted by Greg Palast of voter 
suppression and voter fraud committed by Republicans and Donald Trump surrogates 
after the 2016 election.This was later made into a movie.
   Before a single vote was cast,the election was fixed by GOP and Trump 
operatives.
   Starting in 2013 "just as the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act" a 
coterie of Trump operatives,under the direction of Kris Kobach,Kansas Secretary 
of State,created a system to purge 1.1 million Americans of color from the voter 
rolls of GOP controlled states.

   The system, called Crosscheck, is detailed in Palast's Rolling Stone report,
"The GOP's Stealth War on Voters," 8/24/2016.
 
Crosscheck in action: 
Trump victory margin in Michigan:                    13,107
Michigan Crosscheck purge list:                     449,922
 
Trump victory margin in Arizona:                       85,257
Arizona Crosscheck purge list:                        270,824
 
Trump victory margin in North Carolina:        177,008
North Carolina Crosscheck purge list:          589,393
 
   On November 9,2016 we saw Crosscheck elect a Republican Senate and as President,
Donald Trump.The electoral putsch was aided by nine other methods of attacking the 
right to vote of Black, Latino and Asian-American voters,methods detailed 
in Palast's book and film,including "Caging," "purging,: blocking legitimate 
registrations and wrongly shunting millions to "provisional" ballots that will 
never be counted.
    Trump signaled the use of "Crosscheck" when he claimed the election is 
"rigged" because "people are voting many,many times." His operative Kobach,who 
also advised Trump on building a wall on the southern border,devised a list of 
7.2 million potential "double voters" 1.1 million of which were removed from the 
voter rolls by Tuesday.The list is loaded overwhelmingly with voters of color and 
the poor. Here's a sample of the list:

    No, not everyone on the list loses their vote.But this was not the only 
racially poisonous tactic that accounted for this purloined victory by Trump and 
GOP candidates.
   For example,in the swing state of North Carolina,it was reported that 6,700 
Black folk lost their registrations because their registrations had been 
challenged by a group called Voter Integrity Project (VIP).VIP sent letters to 
households in Black communities "do not forward."  If the voter had moved within 
the same building,or somehow did not get their mail (e.g. if their name was not on 
a mail box), they were challenged as "ghost" voters.GOP voting officials happily 
complied with VIP with instant cancellation of registrations.
    The 6,700 identified in two counties were returned to the rolls through a 
lawsuit.However,there was not one mention in the press that VIP was also behind 
Crosscheck in North Carolina;nor that its leader, Col. Jay Delancy, whom Palast 
tracked for years has previously used this vote thievery, known as "caging," for 
years.Doubtless the caging game was wider and deeper than reported.And by the way,
caging,as Palast's Rolling Stone co-author, attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,tells 
Palast,is "a felony,it's illegal, and punishable by high fines and even jail time."
    There is still much investigation to do. For example, there are millions of 
"provisional" ballots, "spoiled" (invalidated) ballots and ballots rejected from 
the approximately 30 million mailed in. Unlike reporting in Britain,US media does 
not report the ballots that are rejected and tossed out" because,after all,as 
Joe Biden says,"Our elections are the envy of the world."Only in Saudi Arabia,Joe.
   But,the evidence that has already been exposed makes me sadly confident in 
saying,Jim Crow,not the voters,elected Mr. Trump.

Donald Webster accused double voter
 
What about those exit polls?
      Exit polls are the standard by which the US State Department measures the 
honesty of foreign elections.  Exit polling is,historically, deadly accurate.
The bane of pre-election polling is that pollsters must adjust for the likelihood 
of a person voting. Exit polls solve the problem.
   But three times in US history,pollsters have had to publicly flagellate 
themselves for their "errors."  In 2000,exit polls gave Al Gore the win in Florida;
in 2004,exit polls gave Kerry the win in Ohio,and now, in swing states, exit polls
gave the presidency to Hillary Clinton.
   So how could these multi-million-dollar Ph.d-directed statisticians with decades
of experience get exit polls so wrong?
Answer:they didn't.The polls in Florida in 2000 were accurate.That's because exit 
pollsters can only ask, "How did you vote?"  
What they don't ask, and can't,is,"Was your vote counted?"
   In 2000,in Florida, GOP Secretary of State Katherine Harris officially 
rejected 181,173 ballots, as "spoiled" because their chads were hung and other 
nonsense excuses.Those ballots overwhelmingly were marked for Al Gore. The exit 
polls included those 181,173 people who thought they had voted,but their vote 
didn't count.In other words, the exit polls accurately reflected whom the voters 
chose,not what Katherine Harris chose.
    In 2004,a similar number of votes were invalidated (including an enormous 
pile of "provisional" ballots) by Ohio's GOP Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.
Again,the polls reflected that Kerry was the choice of 51% of the voters. But the 
exit polls were "wrong" because they didn't reflect the ballots invalidated by 
Blackwell.
   And here we go again.2016:Hillary wins among those queried as they exit the 
polling station,yet Trump is declared winner in GOP-controlled swings states.
And,once again,the expert pollsters are forced to apologize,when they should be 
screaming,"Fraud! Here's the evidence the vote was fixed!"
   Now there's a new trope to explain away the exit polls that gave Clinton the 
win. Supposedly,Trump voters were ashamed to say they voted for Trump.Really? 
ON WHAT PLANET? For Democracy Now! and Rolling Stone Palast was out in several 
swing states.In Ohio,yes,a Black voter may have been reluctant to state support 
for Trump.But a white voter in the suburbs of Dayton,where the Trump signs grew 
on lawns like weeds,and the pews of the evangelical mega churches were
slathered with Trump and GOP brochures, risked getting spat on if they even 
whispered, "Hillary."
   This country is violently divided,but in the end, there simply aren't enough 
white guys to elect Trump nor a Republican Senate.
   The only way they could win was to eliminate the votes of non-white guys,and 
they did so by tossing Black provisional ballots into the dumpster,ID laws that 
turn away students "the list goes on. It's a web of complex obstacles to voting 
by citizens of color topped by that lying spider, Crosscheck.
   Now "Hillary" who got a lot of money from donators rather than blaming Russia 
for hacking should be using her donations and hollering "voter fraud" at the top 
of her lungs. The leadership of the DNC ignore this issue even with the black 
caucus wing of the DNC hollering.This is an issue with much more merit.
    If "Hillary" were successful this could lead to an impeachment of Trump or 
delegitimize the "Trump" victory and many of the Republican congressional 
victories.At the very least it would have made Republicans quite more vulnerable 
in 2018 and 2020.
   But instead the Democrats pursue the frivolous accusation of hacking the DNC. 
Democrats are locked out of power in Washington after losing the White House and 
failing to win back Congress.Hillary Clinton's defeat has left the party without 
a unifying leader,and its hold on state legislatures has eroded significantly 
during President Obama's time in office.But as bleak as current circumstances are 
for the Democratic party,the political landscape ahead may be even more 
challenging.
   To start,Democrats must confront what looks like a punishing Senate map in 2018.
The party that controls the White House tends to lose congressional seats in 
midterm elections,but it seems unlikely that Democrats will regain control of the 
Senate two years from now,much less the House of Representatives.Republicans 
significantly outnumber Democrats in the House and only need to protect eight 
Senate seats in 2018 while Democrats must defend twenty-five seats.
    Adding to the challenge, Democrats have 27 senators up for reelection while 
Republicans only 9.Some are in states Donald Trump won by double digit margins 
such as North Dakota,West Virginia,Montana,Indiana and Missouri.Those aren't the 
only perilous races:Democratic incumbents also need to defend Senate seats in Ohio,
Pennsylvania,Michigan,Wisconsin, and Florida,states that voted for Obama in two 
presidential elections before switching to vote for Trump.In 2018 
you may get a veto proof Congress which you can not block with a filibuster. 
"There's no question in 2018 the map will be extremely difficult for Democrats."
     For now,however, the outlook is grim for Democrats. According to the National 
Conference of State Legislatures,Republicans have control of both state houses as 
well as the governor's mansion in twenty four states, while Democrats have total 
control in only seven states in the wake of the 2016 elections.
    The extent to which the party's power has eroded at the state and national 
level makes the the task of rebuilding all the more urgent for Democrats.
It also makes the task far more difficult. Tough odds may convince some demoralized
Democrats in Congress to retire, altering the match-ups in the 2018 
midterm races.But even if that happens, the electoral map will remain challenging 
for the party. As a result, Democrats should prepare for the possibility that they
may face additional setbacks in the near-future that make it even harder to regain 
a substantial foothold in Washington and statehouses 
across the country. Then by complaining about Russian hacking and voter fraud by 
2020 we may see the demise of the Democratic.For their ignorance and 
stupidity they help and are continuing to help "Trump" and the Republicans to
continue running the country.

 INAUGURATION OF DONALD TRUMP AND PROTESTS



   The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States 
marked commencement of the four-year term of Donald Trump as President and Mike 
Pence as Vice President.An estimated 300,000-600,000 people attended the public 
ceremony held on Friday,January 20, 2017 on the West Front of the United States 
Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Along with being the oldest and wealthiest 
person to assume the presidency,he is the first without prior military or
governmental service experience.
   The event was the 58th presidential inauguration.The official theme of the 
event was "Uniquely American".Held in Washington, D.C. from January 17 to 21, 2017,
inaugural events included concerts,the swearing-in ceremony,a Congressional 
luncheon,parade,inaugural balls and the interfaith inaugural prayer service.
   Administered by Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts,the 
presidential
oath was taken by Trump as his first task after becoming president at noon,in 
keeping with Article Two, Section 1, Clause 8 and the 20th Amendment to the 
U.S. Constitution, with the vice presidential oath taken by Pence and administered 
by Associate Justice Clarence Thomas immediately preceding it.[5] Trump was sworn 
in with his left hand on a pair of Bibles, his personal copy and the Lincoln Bible.
   The inauguration was accompanied by protests in the United States and other 
countries.
  On the eve of the inauguration,January 19,protestors gathered outside the 
National Press Building in Washington D.C. where the DeploraBall was held.
   Several protesters threw debris at attendees,hitting one man in the head.
Police responded with teargas and pepper spray scattering the crowd.
   On the day of the Inauguration,January 20 a group of around 100 protesters 
smashed windows of businesses in downtown Washington and tipped over garbage cans.
The protesters also blocked entryways to the event and chained themselves to 
barricades,attempting with little success to prevent Trump supporters from 
gathering near the inaugural parade route.Along the parade route,hundreds of 
demonstrators gathered at designated protest sites,waved signs and chanted 
anti-Trump slogans.Occasional clashes between police and demonstrators occurred,
with masked protesters throwing rocks and chunks of concrete at police.Police in 
riot gear responded with tear gas,pepper spray,flash grenades and other crowd 
dispersing tools.Violent protests continued late into the afternoon near 
Pennsylvania Avenue.A limousine was tagged with graffiti,its windows were 
shattered and it was later set on fire.The limo was owned by a Muslim immigrant.
The fire spread to a Fox News crew SUV which was parked behind the limo.230 people 
were arrested, and of those,217 were charged at the federal level with felony 
rioting,which,if convicted,is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine 
of up to $250,000.Six officers suffered minor injuries.

COP KILLS 26 YEAR OLD WHITE MAN IN COLD BLOOD,THEN GETS ACQUITTED


 In January of 2016 a cop shot an unarmed 26 year old WHITE man who had his hands 
up in the air while he was on his knees.The cop had on a bullet proof vest and a 
high powered rifle pointed at the victim with others who had guns were standing 
around him.The entire incident was caught on video (see video on URL posted below).
On the video the deceased can be heard pleading with the cop not to shoot him.On 
December 8,2017 the cop was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter.The American
justice system is shit.Police have a license to kill unarmed people.At first it 
was unarmed black people getting shot to death now it is unarmed white people 
become victims. Now white people know what it is like to be black.When the police 
kill innocent unarmed people,then the justice system lets them walk that tells me 
justice in the USA is a joke.Perhaps Russia is the land of freedom.Russia unlike 
the USA doesn't have the death penalty.I have not been in the USA in over 8 years 
and I do not miss it.I don't feel like getting shot by some trigger happy cop 
knowing a corrupt judicial system won't hold him accountable.
  Being an American lawyer or a judge used to be a respectable occupation now it 
is a disgrace.This just disgusts me.
   I spent 2 years in law school.A lawyer told me 
  "if all the people became bad,we would still have a job,
 if all the people became good,we would still have a job,
   but if all the people became smart,we would have a problem."
   Perhaps we should replace judges and lawyers with robots.
  After this former Arizona cop in December was acquitted of murder in the 
shooting death of an unarmed man,officials released video of the victim's final 
moments.On the nearly five-minute video,which was recorded by then-Mesa police 
officer Philip "Mitch" Brailsford's body camera,an officer can be heard giving 
commands to 26-year-old Daniel Shaver in a La Quinta Inn & Suites hallway on 
January 18,2016.
   "If you make a mistake,there is a very real possibility that you will be shot,"
one of the officers can be heard shouting. "I'm not here to be tactical or 
diplomatic with you."
   Brailsford and several other officers were at the hotel investigating a report 
of someone seen pointing a gun out a fifth-floor window.They suspected Shaver was 
involved.
   Shaver,who had been ordered out of his hotel room by police,was commanded to 
lie facedown in the hallway and to refrain from making sudden movements.
    The married father of two from Granbury,Texas,can be heard crying and appears 
confused by some of the officers' commands.On the video,Shaver says,"Please do not 
shoot me," as he obeys a command to crawl toward the officers.As he inched forward,
Shaver reached toward his waistband. The movement prompted Brailsford to fire his
AR-15 rifle five times,killing Shaver.The former cop said he suspected Shaver was 
reaching for a weapon.A detective assigned to investigate the case later said it 
appeared Shaver was attempting to pull his pants up.
   No weapon was found on or near Shaver's body.However,investigators did find 
two pellet rifles in his hotel room.Those rifles were reportedly related to 
Shaver's pest-control job.Authorities later learned that he was at the hotel on a 
work-related trip.
   Two months after the shooting,Brailsford was removed from the force for 
violations of departmental policy.Prosecutors ultimately charged him with 
second-degree murder and reckless manslaughter.
   A Maricopa County jury deliberated for six hours before finding Brailsford 
not guilty on both counts on December 7.
   After the verdict,Laney Sweet,Shaver's widow,declined to comment to reporters.
Her attorney,Mark Geragos,told USA Today he was disappointed in the verdict.He 
called the shooting an "execution."
   "The justice system miserably failed Daniel [Shaver] and his family," Geragos 
said.
   You can watch the execution at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTdJYZMKeQs

THIS POLICEMAN SAYS HE WAS FIRED FOR NOT SHOOTING A MAN


     Police reform advocates have demanded in recent years that officers face 
consequences for using excessive force,especially in shootings.But a new lawsuit 
alleges that a former Weirton,West Virginia,police officer was disciplined for 
doing the opposite.During an incident last May,Officer Stephen Mader decided not 
to shoot an armed suicidal man.Police brass determined he showed poor judgment 
during the encounter.Soon after,Mader was fired from the town's police force.Now 
he is suing the city for wrongful termination.
     The lawsuit,filed May 10 against the city of Weirton by Mader's attorney 
along with the ACLU of West Virginia,accuses the department of firing Mader to 
buttress its defense of another officer who did shoot the man.
    According to the lawsuit,on the evening of May 6,2016,Mader responded to a 911 
call from a woman who reported that her ex-boyfriend was at her home and 
had threatened to kill himself.Mader'a veteran of the Marines,was a rookie officer
at the time.When he arrived at the scene,he encountered Ronald Williams,a 
21-year-old African American man,standing outside the home with his hands behind 
his back.After initially refusing to show his hands,Williams brought them to his 
side and revealed that he was holding a handgun.Mader demanded that Williams drop 
it,but he refused and told Mader to shoot him. 
    During the encounter,Williams was visibly despondent but not aggressive,the 
lawsuit says.Mader says he determined that Williams was attempting to commit 
suicide-by-cop and believing that he was not a threat,decided not to shoot him.As 
Mader tried to talk him down,two other officers arrived on the scene.Williams 
then raised his gun, and one of the officers shot him in the head,killing him.The 
officers later determined that Williams' gun was unloaded.
    Mader was fired the next month following an investigation into the incident.
Weirton's city manager told local media after Mader's dismissal that he was fired 
because of two other incidents that took place earlier in the year.In the
termination letter,the Weirton police chief wrote that Mader displayed 
difficulties in critical incident reasoning" and had failed "to meet probationary
standards of an officer." The letter does not refer to Mader's encounter with 
Williams or other incidents.But in an accompanying memo,a police captain accused 
Mader of "negligence" during the May 6 incident because he "failed to engage the 
suspect" and eliminate a threat,forcing another officer to shoot Williams in order 
to protect his ex-girlfriend,her child and other officers on the scene. A 
prosecutor also determined that the officer who shot Williams" and who remains on
the force" was justified in doing so.
   According to his lawsuit,it was Mader's responsibility to decide for himself 
what kind of force to use based on his own assessment of whether Williams posed 
an imminent threat.Department protocol and the Fourth Amendment of the 
Constitution" barred him from using deadly force in any other circumstance.The 
suit also argues that the department's decision to fire him encourages other 
Weirton Police Department officers to use force in incidents where it may not be 
necessary by sending the message that they could lose their jobs if they don't.
"What I think it shows" and this is a problem I think we have throughout the 
country "is that because you can use deadly force,you should use deadly force,"
Mader's attorney Tim O'Brien told me. "And what this case is about is that an 
officer should be entitled to exercise that discretion based on facts known to 
that officer." The same can be said of officers who choose to shoot,O'Brien noted, 
but the same Fourth Amendment standard applies.
      General de-escalation training for police and more precise training on 
dealing with individuals in a mental health crisis have been increasingly adopted 
by police departments around the country in recent years,but the training is 
still not widespread. Just 16 states mandate de-escalation training for police 
officers,according to a recent investigation by AMP Reports.West Virginia is not 
one of them.Among those states that do require it,some require as little as one 
hour of training per year.
    Mader says he received some de-escalation training in the Weirton police 
academy,but he mostly drew on his military training during his encounter with 
Williams.There is little research on whether military veterans "which account for 
nearly 20 percent of of all police officers nationwide,according to a recent 
Marshall Project investigation" are more or less likely to use force. A recent 
Pew Research survey found that cops who were veterans were slightly more likely to 
say they had used force than their non-veteran peers. 
    Mader told me he believes Williams might still be alive if he had had 
more time to talk to him before other officers arrived on the scene.O'Brien 
agreed, and said that while the case is about a single officer,it has implications 
for policing nationwide and the context in which we have arrived in this society 
where it has become almost second nature to accept the fact that a first option is
to shoot and kill a citizen.It's become much more the norm than perhaps it should 
be and that's what we need to evaluate."
 2017 LAS VEGAS SHOOTING


   On the night of October 1, 2017,a gunman opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers 
at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada,leaving 58 
people dead and 546 injured.Between 10:05 and 10:15 p.m.PDT, 64-year-old Stephen 
Paddock of Mesquite,Nevada,fired more than 1,100 rounds from his suite on the 
32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel.About an hour after Paddock fired 
his last shot into the crowd of 22,000,he was found dead in his room from a 
self-inflicted gunshot wound.His motive is unknown.
    The incident is the deadliest mass shooting committed by an individual in the 
United States.The shooting reignited the debate about gun laws in the U.S., 
with attention focused on bump fire stocks,which Paddock used to allow his 
semi-automatic rifles to fire at a rate similar to that of a fully automatic 
weapon.

MORE AMERICANS KILLED BY GUNS SINCE 1968 THAN IN ALL U.S. WARS:COMBINED

    More Americans have died from gunshots in the last 50 years than in all of the 
wars in American history.Since 1968,more than 1.5 million Americans have died in 
gun-related incidents,according to data from the 
    U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.By comparison,approximately 
1.2 million service members have been killed in every war in U.S. history,according 
to estimates from the Department of Veterans Affairs and Casualties.org, a website 
that maintains an ongoing database of casualties from the wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan.

The October 1st massacre in Las Vegas,which left 59 dead and 530 others injured 
is the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
And such attacks are becoming more common.
  What we've seen in Las Vegas is an uniquely American scene," former FBI agent 
Ali Soufan said on MSNBC. "The aftermath of such traumatic events have become an 
all too familiar scene in our society and in our politics,unfortunately."
  The June 2016 shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando,Florida,which killed 49 
people,is now the second deadliest attack,followed by the 2012 massacre at 
Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown,Connecticut,which killed 26 people,most of them 
children.
  After the Sandy Hook shooting,a tearful President Barack Obama announced a 
series of executive actions aimed at curbing violence in America. The orders 
included a measure to overturn a 20-year-old amendment that prevented the CDC 
from conducting federally funded research into how gun violence affects Americans.
  But despite the elimination of the ban,the agency has remained hesitant to 
comprehensively research one of the most divisive issues in America. Many 
activists blame the influence that the NRA and other powerful pro-gun lobbies seem 
to have on some members of Congress,and the agency's fear that funding could be 
reduced or revoked.
  President Trump has ignored shouted questions on whether the Las Vegas shooting 
should prompt stricter gun control laws.But he did have harsh words for the
suspected gunman,Stephen Paddock.
"He's a sick man, a demented man, lot of problems, I guess," Trump said. "We're 
dealing with a very, very sick individual."

HOOKWORM,A DISEASE OF EXTREME POVERTY,IS THRIVING IN THE US SOUTH.WHY?
  Children playing feet away from open pools of raw sewage;drinking water pumped 
beside cracked pipes of untreated waste;human feces flushed back into 
kitchen sinks and bathtubs whenever the rains come; people testing positive for 
hookworm,an intestinal parasite that thrives on extreme poverty.
  These are the findings of a new study into endemic tropical diseases,or in 
places usually associated with them in the developing world of sub-Saharan Africa 
and Asia,but in a corner of the richest nation on earth: Alabama.
    Scientists in Houston,Texas,have lifted the lid on one of America's darkest 
and deepest secrets: that hidden beneath fabulous wealth, the US tolerates 
poverty-related illness at levels comparable to the world's poorest countries. 
More than one in three people sampled in a poor area of Alabama tested positive 
for traces of hookworm,a gastrointestinal parasite that was thought to have been 
eradicated from the US decades ago.
    The long-awaited findings,are a wake-up call for the world's only superpower 
as it grapples with growing inequality.Donald Trump has promised to 
"Make America Great Again" and tackle the nation's crumbling infrastructure,but 
he has said very little about enduring chronic poverty,particularly in the 
southern states.
   The study,the first of its kind in modern times,was carried out by the National
School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in conjunction with 
Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise (ACRE),a non-profit group seeking to address 
the root causes of poverty.In a survey of people living in Lowndes County,
an area with a long history of racial discrimination and inequality,it found that 
34% tested positive for genetic traces of Necator americanus.
  The parasite,better known as hookworm, enters the body through the skin,usually 
through the soles of bare feet,and travels around the body until it attaches itself
to the small intestine where it proceeds to suck the blood of its host.Over months 
or years it causes iron deficiency and anemia,weight loss,tiredness and impaired 
mental function,especially in children,helping to trap them into the poverty in 
which the disease flourishes.
   Hookworm was rampant in the deep south of the US in the earlier 20th century,
sapping the energy and educational achievements of both white and black kids and 
helping to create the stereotype of the lazy and lethargic southern redneck.As 
public health improved,most experts assumed it had disappeared altogether by the 
1980s.
   But the new study reveals that hookworm not only survives in communities of 
Americans lacking even basic sanitation,but does so on a breathtaking scale. 
None of the people included in the research had traveled outside the US,yet 
parasite exposure was found to be prevalent,as was shockingly inadequate waste 
treatment.
   The peer-reviewed research paper,published in the American Journal of Tropical 
Medicine and Hygiene,focuses on Lowndes County,Alabama,the home state of the US 
attorney general,Jeff Sessions and a landmark region in the history of the nation's
civil rights movement. "Bloody Lowndes", the area was called in reference to the 
violent reaction of white residents towards attempts to undo racial segregation in
the 1950s.
   It was through this county that Martin Luther King led marchers from Selma to 
Montgomery in 1965 in search of voting rights for black citizens,more than 
half a century later,King's dream of what he called the "dignity of equality" 
remains elusive for many of the 11,000 residents of Lowndes County,74% of whom 
are African American.
  The average income is just $18,046 ($13,850) a year and almost a third of the 
population live below the official US poverty line.The most elementary waste 
disposal infrastructure is often non-existent.
   Some 73% of residents included in the Baylor survey reported that they had been 
exposed to raw sewage washing back into their homes as a result of faulty septic 
tanks or waste pipes becoming overwhelmed in torrential rains.
   The Baylor study was inspired by Catherine Flowers,ACRE's founder,who 
encouraged the Houston scientists to carry out the review after she became 
concerned about the health consequences of having so many open sewers in her home 
county."Hookworm is a 19th-century disease that should by now have been addressed,
yet we are still struggling with it in the United States in the 21st century," she 
said.
    "Our billionaire philanthropists like Bill Gates fund water treatment around 
the world,but they don't fund it here in the US because no one acknowledges that 
this level of poverty exists in the richest nation in the world."
   Flowers took the Guardian on a tour of Lowndes County to witness the conditions 
in which hookworm continues to proliferate. One stop was at a group of mobile homes
outside Fort Deposit that graphically illustrated the crisis.
   An eight-year-old child was sitting on the stoop of one of the trailers. Below 
him a white pipe ran from his house,across the yard just a few feet away from a 
basketball hoop,and into a copse of pine and sweet gum trees.
   The pipe was cracked in several places and stopped just inside the copse,barely
30 feet from the house,dripping ooze into a viscous pool the color of oil.Directly 
above the sewage pool,a separate narrow-gauge pipe ran up to the house,which 
turned out to be the main channel carrying drinking water to the residents.
   The open sewer was festooned with mosquitoes,and a long cordon of ants could be
seen trailing along the waste pipe from the house.At the end of the pool nearest 
the house the treacly fluid was glistening in the dappled sunlight" a closer look 
revealed that it was actually moving,its human effluence heaving and churning 
with thousands of worms.
   "This is the definition of "Make America Great Again"," said Aaron Thigpen, 29,
a community activist who assisted with the hookworm study."This is the reality of 
how people are being forced to live."
   Thigpen's cousins live in the trailer park, and he has talked to them about the
perils of piping sewage from their homes and dumping it in the open just a few feet
away." They are disgusted about it,they're sick and tired of living like this,but 
there's no public help for them here and if you're earning $700 a month there's no 
way you can afford your own private sanitation."
   He added that people were afraid to report the problems,given the spate of 
criminal prosecutions that were launched by Alabama state between 2002 and 2008 
against residents who were open-piping sewage from their homes, unable to afford 
proper treatment systems.One grandmother was jailed over a weekend for failing to 
buy a septic tank that cost more than her entire annual income.
    "People are scared.They don't like to speak out as they're worried the health 
department will come round and cause trouble," Thigpen said.
    The challenge to places like Lowndes County is not to restore existing public 
infrastructure, as Trump has promised, because there is no public infrastructure 
here to begin with.Flowers estimates that 80% of the county is uncovered by any 
municipal sewerage system, and in its absence people are expected,and in some 
cases legally forced,to provide their own.
   Even where individuals can afford up to $15,000 to install a septic tank "and 
very few can'the terrain is against them.Lowndes County is located within the 
"Black Belt", the southern sweep of loamy soil that is well suited to growing 
cotton and as a result spawned a multitude of plantations,each worked by a large 
enslaved population.
   The same thing that made the land so good for cotton,its water-retaining 
properties" also makes it a hazard to the thousands of African Americans who still
live on it today.When the rains come,the soil becomes saturated, overwhelming 
inadequate waste systems and providing a perfect breeding ground for hookworm.
   Ruby Rudolph lives just beside the main Selma to Montgomery road where King led
the protest walk.On the other side of the road there's a brown history 
placard to mark the spot where her grandmother,Rosie Steele,ran a campsite for the
 weary marchers.
   After they moved on and the campsite was cleared,Rudolph said,her grandmother's
grocery store was set on fire in an arson attack.She was 13 at the time,and can 
remember the flames leaping into the night sky.
   Rudolph, now 66,does have her own septic tank at the back of her house,which 
she shows us in the sweltering 41C (105F) heat.But it doesn't function properly 
and when it rains the tank spills over, spreading raw waste all over the yard."
That's better than when it flushes back into the house,and I've had that too," she 
said.
   She's been told a replacement system would cost her at least $12,000,which is 
beyond her means.She runs through her finances:she gets up at 4 AM every day to do 
an early shift at a Mapco convenience store,which brings in less than $1,200 a 
month.From that amount she has to pay $611 for her mortgage and there's the 
electricity bill that can be more than $300 a month when it's hot and the air
conditioning is busy.There's not a lot left to put toward a new tank. 
   Perman Hardy,58,lives in nearby Tyler in a collection of seven single-storey 
homes all occupied by members of her extended family.Only two of them have 
septic tanks,the rest just pipe raw waste into the surrounding woods and creeks.
   Hardy is one of the lucky ones with a treatment system of her own,but like 
Rudolph's it is often overwhelmed in the rains with feces washed back into her 
home.Last year the stench was so bad she had to vacate the property for two weeks 
over Christmas while it was professionally cleaned.
   Hardy has traced her family back to slaves held on the Rudolph Bottom plantation
about five miles away.The road that leads to the old plantation from her house is 
still called to this day by white neighbors "Nigger Foot Road", she said,though she
and other African Americans call it Collerine Cutoff Road.
   As a child,Hardy worked in the cotton fields after school and,mindful of that 
and her family's slave history,she's determined to see a better future for 
her grandchildren. "I don't want the same for my boys.But it's still a struggle.It's
the 21st century and we shouldn't be struggling like we still are today."
   The daily hardship faced by Hardy,Rudolph and fellow inhabitants of Lowndes 
County is reflected in the Baylor study's glaring statistic of 34% testing 
positive for hookworm.The sample size was low "67 people participated with 55 
giving stool samples all of whom were African American" but the results are so 
stark that the Houston scientists now want to conduct a larger survey across the region.
   "We now need to find how widespread hookworm is across the US," said Dr Peter 
Hotez,dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine,who led the research team 
along with Rojelio Mejia.Hotez,who has estimated that as many as 12 million 
Americans could be suffering from neglected tropical diseases in poor parts of the
south and midwest,told the Guardian the results were a wake-up call for the nation.
   "This is the inconvenient truth that nobody in America wants to talk about," he
said. "These people live in the southern United States,and nobody seems to care; 
they are poor,and nobody seems to care;and more often than not they are people of 
color,and nobody seems to care."

SEXUAL HARRASSMENT-TAXPAYERS:FOOT THE BILL

  In October 2017,The New York Times and The New Yorker reported that dozens of 
women had accused Harvey Weinstein,a prominent film producer and executive,of 
sexual harassment,sexual assault or rape.More than 80 women in the film industry 
subsequently accused Weinstein of such acts.Weinstein denied "any non-consensual 
sex".Shortly after the first allegations were published, Weinstein was fired from 
his company,The Weinstein Company and expelled 
from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and other professional 
associations.Criminal investigations into complaints from at least 
six women are ongoing in Los Angeles,New York City, and London.
   The scandal triggered many similar allegations against powerful men around the 
world and led to the ousting of many of them from their positions.
It also led a great number of women to share their own experiences of sexual 
assault,harassment,or rape on social media under the hashtag #MeToo. 
The scandal's impact came to be called the "Weinstein effect".
   If Weinstein settles these allegations with payments.He can deduct the cost of 
the settlement as a tax deduction. In other words,the US taxpayers pay the bill.
  During the week of December 2nd Matt Lauer,Garrison Keillor and Russell Simmons 
all lost their jobs as a result of sexual misconduct allegations against them.John 
Conyers,Blake Farenthold and Ruben Kihuen kept theirs.Donald Trump still has his 
and Roy Moore might be about to get a new one.
   The list of high-powered men hit by sexual harassment allegations continued to 
grow this week both in corporate America and on Capitol Hill.
While the private sector has generally dealt swiftly with such allegations, 
Congress has been much slower to act,even as more of its members come under the 
microscope.
   Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D-NV) is the latest member of Congress to be hit with 
allegations of sexual misconduct.BuzzFeed News reported that the Nevada Democrat 
made repeated unwanted sexual advances toward a 25-year-old woman named Samantha 
during his 2016 campaign.The woman became so uncomfortable with the situation that 
she quit her job.
   She told BuzzFeed she spoke with a contact at the Democratic Congressional 
Campaign Committee (DCCC) about her decision to leave,telling a midlevel staffer 
who no longer works there that Kihuen had made her uncomfortable.That staffer 
confirmed to BuzzFeed that a conversation took place but said she did not tell him
specifics.The staffer then informed Kihuen's campaign manager at the time,who 
confronted the congressman.Kihuen denied anything improper had happened. "I didn't
know what they could do, but I felt like I had to let someone know," the woman 
told BuzzFeed.
    In a pair of statements to BuzzFeed News,the Nevada Democrat apologized "for 
anything that I may have said or done that made her feel uncomfortable," but added 
he wanted to,make it clear that I don't recall any of the circumstances" described
by the woman.
   Democratic leaders,including DCCC Chair Rep. Ben Lujen (D-NM) and House Minority
Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA),have called on Kihuen to resign."In Congress,no one 
should face sexual harassment in order to work in an office or in a campaign.The 
young woman's documented account is convincing and I commend her for the courage 
it took to come forward," Pelosi said in a statement released overnight Friday. 
"In light of these upsetting allegations, Congressman Kihuen should resign."
   Kihuen's office did not immediately return request for comment on calls for his 
resignation.
   Pelosi also called on Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) to resign this week, amid 
multiple claims that the congressman had made sexual advances toward his female 
staffers.She initially offered a much more equivocal response to the allegations,
raising eyebrows in an appearance on Meet the Press last weekend when she told NBC's
Chuck Todd that Conyers is an "icon" who has" done a great deal to protect women."
She also called into question his accusers: "I do not know who they are. Do you?"
   An attorney for Conyers said that the representative would decide what to do in 
the coming days. But he has not yet decided to resign.Neither has Kihuen.Or Sen. Al
Franken (D-MN),who faces allegations of sexual misconduct from several women and is
under a preliminary inquiry by the Senate Ethics Committee.He returned to work in 
the Senate this week.
    A Texas Republican was behind a secret $84,000 harassment claim.Politico 
reported that Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) in 2014 used $84,000 in taxpayer 
dollars to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit with a former aide.He is the only 
known sitting member of Congress to make use of the little-known congressional 
account used to cover workplace settlements involving lawmakers "everything from 
sexual harassment and racial discrimination to violations of the Americans With 
Disabilities Act.
    Farenthold is the first member of Congress confirmed to have benefited from a 
Treasury Department fund created under the Congressional Review Act of 1995.
Since 1997,the fund has paid at least $15 million to settle complaints" but it has 
made only one sexual harassment payment over the last five years, 
the congressional Office of Compliance (OOC) disclosed on Friday.That appears to be
Farenthold's, although he's refused to confirm or deny the settlement.
   Lauren Greene,Farenthold's former communications director,sued the Texas 
Republican in 2014 over allegations of gender discrimination,sexual harassment
 and creating a hostile work environment. She said Farenthold had told another 
aide that he had fantasized about Greene and that both he and his top aide,Bob 
Haueter,had sexually harassed her. When she complained directly to Farenthold in 
June 2014,she said in a court complaint she was marginalized and undermined at work
and several weeks later was fired.Greene filed a lawsuit but dropped the case after
a settlement was reached.
   In light of heightened scrutiny on the Office of Compliance and Congress's
secret settlement fund, the House Ethics Committee has launched an investigation 
into the OOC.This means that some details on Congress's sexual harassment problem,
which the settlements have largely kept under wraps,could end up becoming public"
though the names of those accused or paid will remain secret.
   House Speaker Paul Ryan's (R-WI) office said he would not call for Farenthold's 
resignation.Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) said through a spokesman 
Farenthold should resign. He has not done so.
   Another Texas Republican, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) announced he wouldn't seek 
reelection in 2018 after a nude photo and salacious text messages surfaced online.
   Sexual harassment in Congress is pervasive, and crosses party lines.Both the 
House of Representatives and the Senate have recently passed bipartisan 
resolutions requiring sexual harassment training for members and staffers.
   The private sector, thus far,has responded better to sexual misconduct than 
Congress.With the exception of Barton,who at least in the case of the nude photo 
may have been the victim of "revenge porn," the lawmakers accused of sexual
misdeeds thus far have resisted calls to step aside.In Alabama, Republican Senate 
candidate Roy Moore has bounced back in the polls despite multiple sexual 
misconduct allegations.And President Trump has reportedly started to suggest in 
conversation that the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which he brags about 
sexually assaulting women is not real. (It is.)
    Major figures accused of sexual misconduct in the private sector in recent 
months and weeks,on the other hand, haven't fared so well.Journalists Charlie Rose,
Mark Halperin,Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Thrush have all lost their jobs or been 
suspended following allegations.In Hollywood,
Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K., Jeffrey Tambor and John Lasseter have 
been ousted, taken leaves of absence,lost projects or otherwise faced consequences 
after accusations of sexual harassment, misconduct, or abuse came to light.
   In general,the private sector appears to respond better to allegations than 
government bureaucracy. Prominent men in Hollywood in the media and in corporate 
America all have to answer to someone,the C-suite, the board of directors, 
shareholders.And companies ultimately have to contend with their customers as well.
O'Reilly's ouster was, in part, the result of public pressure on advertisers to 
drop his show.
    Congressional lawmakers have no such forces to contend with and,if anything,
 have a system and bureaucracy that protects them instead.Weather in the private 
or public sector it is the US taxpayer who pays the bill for the settlements in 
sexual harassment cases.

TRUMP SENDS MORE THAN 3,000 TROOPS TO AFGHANISTAN

  Trump liked the war,but now his legacy is wrapped up in the quagmire too.
  US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis announced on September 18 that the US will 
send more than 3,000 troops to Afghanistan in an effort to win America's 
6-year war there "the longest in US history.It's also a reversal for President Trump,
who entered office promising to minimize America's involvement abroad.
   They will add to the approximately 11,000 US troops already serving in 
Afghanistan,bringing the total to at least 14,000.These new service members claims 
he will help Afghan forces in their effort to defeat the nearly 20 terrorist groups
in the country especially the Taliban,ISIS and al-Qaeda by advising them and 
providing artillery and air support.
The announcement came less than a month after Trump outlined his war strategy in a 
high-profile August 21 speech in front of around 2,000 troops at Fort Myer,Virginia.
Trump said the US would win the war but didn't disclose when US troops would come 
home."Conditions on the ground,not arbitrary timetables,will guide our strategy 
from now on," he said in his remarks, which were heavy on harsh rhetoric but 
strikingly light on details.
   One day after Trump's comments,Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered a 
different assessment of America's goals in Afghanistan."I think the president was 
clear this entire effort was intended to put pressure on the Taliban,to have the 
Taliban understand that you will not win a battlefield victory," Tillerson said 
during a press conference on August 22. "We may not win one, but neither will you."
    As Tillerson hinted, it's unclear how sending a few thousand more troops will 
turn around the dire situation in Afghanistan.In 2011,the US had around 
100,000 troops deployed in the country.Yet the Taliban,the hardline Islamist group 
hat America and NATO set out to dislodge more than 15 years ago"survived and has 
recently made a startling comeback.It currently controls more than 40 percent of 
the country and around 8.4 million Afghans,about a third of the country's 
population,live under its rule.
   But by deploying these troops,Trump becomes the third president,joining George 
W. Bush and Barack Obama to wade into the quagmire.It's a stunning turnaround for 
Trump,who spent years railing against leaders who waded into unwinnable conflicts.
  Trump goes against his "instinct".Trump was inherently skeptical about spending 
more blood and treasure in Afghanistan and tweeted for years about how much he 
didn't like the war.
  What US politicians don't realize is that "Afghanistan" is the grave yard for
empires.Just ask the Brits and the Soviets.America-welcome to the club.

U.S. ARMY LIFTS BAN ON WAIVERS FOR RECRUITS WITH HISTORY OF 
SOME MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES

  The US Army is in such a desperate need for recruits they are now accepting crazy
people.People with a history of "self-mutilation," bipolar disorder,depression and 
drug and alcohol abuse can now seek waivers to join the Army under an unannounced 
policy enacted in August.
  The decision to open Army recruiting to those with mental health conditions 
comes as the service faces the challenging goal of recruiting 80,000 new soldiers 
through September 2018.To meet last year's goal of 69,000, the Army accepted more 
recruits who fared poorly on aptitude tests, increased the 
number of waivers granted for marijuana use and offered hundreds of millions of 
dollars in bonuses.
    Expanding the waivers for mental health is possible in part because the Army 
now has access to more medical information about each potential recruit,
Lt. Col. Randy Taylor,an Army spokesman,said in a statement.The Army issued the 
ban on waivers in 2009 amid an epidemic of suicides among troops. 
   "The decision was primarily due to the increased availability of medical 
records and other data which is now more readily available," Taylor said. "These 
records allow Army officials to better document applicant medical histories." 
   But accepting recruits with those mental health conditions in their past
carries risks, according to Elspeth Ritchie,a psychiatrist who retired from the 
Army as a colonel in 2010 and is an expert on waivers for military service.People 
with a history of mental health problems are more likely to have those issues 
resurface than those who do not,she said.
   "It is a red flag," she said. "The question is,how much of a red flag is it?"
   While bipolar disorder can be kept under control with medication,self-mutilation,
where people slashing their skin with sharp instruments,may signal deeper mental 
health issues,according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health 
Disorders,which is published by the American Psychiatric Association. 
    If self-mutilation occurs in a military setting, Ritchie said, it could be 
disruptive for a unit. A soldier slashing his or her own skin could result 
in blood on the floor,the assumption of a suicide attempt and the potential need 
for medical evacuation from a war zone or other austere place.
 
A legacy of problems

   Accepting recruits with poor qualifications can cause problems.In 2006,for 
example,an Iraqi girl was raped and her family killed by U.S. soldiers,one of whom 
required waivers for minor criminal activity and poor educational background to
join the Army.Memos and documents obtained outline the hurdles that a potential 
recruit must clear to join the Army.Guidance for screening potential recruits with 
histories that include self-mutilation make clear that the applicant must provide
"appropriate documentation" to obtain the waiver,according a September memo to 
commanders.Those requirements include a detailed statement from the applicant, 
medical records, evidence from an employer if the injury was job-related,photos 
submitted by the recruiter and a psychiatric evaluation and "clearance."
   Slides for military officials who screen recruits show examples of people whose
arms,legs and torsos have been scarred by self-mutilation. 
"For all waivers," one memo states, "the burden of proof is on the applicant to 
provide a clear and meritorious case for why a waiver should be considered."
   Taylor said many "meritorious cases" had been found of highly qualified 
applicants who had been disqualified because of events that had occurred 
when they were young children.
    "With the additional data available, Army officials can now consider applicants
as a whole person,allowing a series of Army leaders and medical professionals to 
review the case fully to assess the applicant's physical limitations or medical 
conditions and their possible impact upon the applicant's ability to complete 
training and finish an Army career," Taylor said. "These waivers are not considered
lightly."
   Under the right circumstances, a waiver for self-mutilation could be 
appropriate, Ritchie said.:I can see a rationale that that shouldn't be an 
absolute but could be a waiver," she said. 

Unknown number of waivers

   In fiscal year 2017,the active-duty Army recruited nearly 69,000 soldiers,and 
only 1.9% belonged to what is known as Category Four.That refers to troops who 
score in the lowest category on military aptitude tests.In 2016, 0.6% of Army 
recruits came from Category Four.The Pentagon mandates that the services 
accept no more than 4% of recruiting classes from Category Four.In addition, 
waivers for marijuana use, illegal while in uniform, jumped from 191 in 2016 to 
506 in 2017. Eight states have legalized recreational use of marijuana.
   Recruiting generally is more challenging for the services when the economy is 
strong.The Army has responded by offering more bonuses to those who sign 
up for service.In fiscal year 2017, it paid out $424 million in bonuses,up from 
$284 million in 2016.In 2014, that figure was only $8.2 million. Some recruits can 
qualify for a bonus of $40,000.
   The Army's decision to rescind the ban for a history of mental health problems 
is in part a reaction to its difficulties in recruiting.You're widening your pool 
for applicants.

WITHOUT PROOF TRUMP FIRES "LOW EFFICIENCY" MISSILES: ONLY 23 
TOMAHAWK MISSLES OUT OF 59 REACHED A SYRIAN AIRFIELD

   The Russian Defense Ministry says the April 7,2017 US missile strike on a Syrian
airfield wasn't very effective,with only 23 out of 59 Tomahawk 
missiles reaching their target.The locations of the remaining 36 missiles' impact 
is now unknown.
  The strike on the Shayrat airfield in Syria's Homs Province destroyed a material 
storage depot,a training facility,a canteen,six MiG-23 aircraft in repair hangars 
and a radar station.
  The runway,taxiways and the Syrian aircraft on the parking apron remained 
undamaged,Russia's Defense Ministry spokesman said in a statement.The ministry 
described the combat efficiency of the strike as "quite poor."
   "On April 7, 2017,between 12:42am and 12:56am GMT,two US Navy destroyers 
(USS Porter and USS Ross) fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Shayrat airfield in
Homs Province,Syria,from an area near the Island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea.
"Only 23 of them reached the Syrian airbase," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman 
Major-General Igor Konashenkov said,adding that the points of impact of the other 
36 cruise missiles remain unknown.
   The ministry also slammed the US actions as "a gross violation" of the
memorandum of understanding signed by Moscow in Washington back in 2015 to 
prevent flight incidents in Syrian airspace.
   All justifications for the strike are "groundless claims," the ministry 
continued."Russia made an earlier statement that the Syrian forces did not 
use chemical weapons.We are waiting for clarification from the US on undisputed "as
they claim" evidence that it was the Syrian Army that deployed chemical weapons in 
the town of Khan Sheikhoun."
   The ministry also pointed to the events that followed the strikes,a large-scale 
offensive against the Syrian Army carried out by Islamic State and Al-Nusra Front 
terrorists.
   "We hope that this offensive was in no way coordinated with the USA," the 
ministry said.
  In April of 2017 the war with ISIL in Syria was winding down.Bashar al-Assad was 
going to Switzerland to get international aid to rebuild his country from the war.
He would have had to be insane to gas his own people.The parts of Syria occupied 
Al-Nusra Front were never subjected to weapons inspections.I would not be surprised
 that Al-Nusra Front orchestrated the gas attack in an effort to drag the USA into 
the fray.

 RUSSIA DID NOT HACK THE DNC
   In November,NSA whistleblower William Binney spoke to members of the press about
meeting with CIA director Mike Pompeo,where they discussed accusations that Russia 
meddled in 2016 US presidential election by hacking the Democrats. In an interview
Binney said tests have "clearly showed" the DNC was not
hacked by Russia before the 2016 presidential election,but that the data was 
downloaded locally.
   Binney met with CIA director Mike Pompeo on Wednesday to review analysis by the
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS),which challenged 
the notion that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was hacked by Russia.In a 
letter to President Donald Trump,the group claims the "data was leaked (not hacked)
by a person with physical access to DNC computers."
    After analyzing the data,VIPS concluded that the transfer simply does not 
support the claim the documents were hacked by Russian agents,as leaders of 
the US intelligence community claimed in a January report.Binney shared test 
findings gleaned on the transfer rate of data,which he said "clearly showed 
that it was a local download and not an international hack."
  "It was very clear it was a local download,because of the speeds and all," 
Binney said, explaining how his colleagues set up a test between a data center in 
New Jersey and another in the UK and could not reproduce the download that took 
place on July 5,2016.
   The approximately 16GB of data was downloaded in two bursts,totaling 87 seconds,
with a 12-minute pause between them."It had to be done locally," Binney said.The 
data logs and the speed test were the only concrete evidence available for 
examination,he pointed out.:Everything else is speculation,and agenda-and 
emotionally-driven assertions."
  If the intelligence community had some factual evidence proving Russian hacking,
that would be another matter the NSA whistleblower said, but "so far they've 
produced nothing."
   When asked who could have been behind the leak,Binney said it may have been an
"inside job," but he couldn't attribute it to anybody in particular,because "we 
never knew who did the download or whether or not it went anywhere else."
   President John F. Kennedy presented aerial surveillance photos of Soviet 
missiles in Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis,Binney pointed out. 
Reagan presented Japanese radio intercepts of orders to shoot down the Korean 
airliner in 1983.No such evidence has been offered for the hacking accusation, 
though many lawmakers have described it as an act of war.
    "They need to put up or shut up," said Binney. He said he does not buy into 
such claims without any factual evidence,"and that's basically what their situation 
is. They have zero evidence."
    However,if there was an agency who would be able to detect if the DNC was 
hacked,it would be the NSA, Binney said."If anybody did anything across the net,
NSA has so many taps on the fiber network inside the US and around the world and 
so many traceroute programs embedded by the hundreds around the network,they would 
know where these packets went," Binney said.
   The NSA and FBI "know a lot more than they're telling the president," Binney 
added.
   The analysis from VIPS implies the intelligence community  is not telling the 
Trump administration what really happened, Binney said.They don't want the American
people to hear the truth either, he added.  
   "They're hiding this.They keep the population ignorant,uninformed so they can
manipulate them any way they want," Binney said. "This is the same thing the 
mainstream media is doing."
     Mainstream media outlets have branded the VIPS analysis as "disputed," 
"fringe," or a "conspiracy theory" (Washington Post,NBC,and CNN respectively)
while failing to apply the same level of skepticism to the US intelligence 
community narrative.The NSA whistleblower was repeatedly called Binney a 
"conspiracy theorist" in a CNN article about the meeting with Pompeo.
   "That's basically showing the shallow weakness of their argument," 
Binney said. "They produce no facts whatsoever and simply throw labels at
people to do character assassination."

See:https://www.rt.com/usa/409269-binney-cia-dnc-hack-meeting/

NORTH KOREA:WHO IS THREATENING WHO?


    Korea had existed as a unified and cohesive nation, with its own unique 
language and culture for more than a millennium. After the defeat of Japan in 
World War II,the brutal Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula (1910-1945) 
was replaced by the brutal U.S. occupation of the southern part of the Korean 
Peninsula.The occupation designed to enforce the division of the Korean Peninsula 
and maintain U.S. war against North Korea,the Democratic People's Republic of 
Korea DPRK,as a pretext for U.S. hegemony.
    Since 1950,successive U.S. regimes have been at war with the people of the 
DPRK.The U.S.-imperialist war against the DPRK (the "Korean War", 1950-1953) has 
been described by Jeremy Kusmarov as the most barbaric war" with the U.S. 
committed mass atrocities against civilians" matched only by the barbarity of the
Second World War.The U.S. and South Korea are technically still at war with the 
DPRK because the U.S. refuses to sign a peace treaty with the DPRK.At the end of 
U.S. naked aggression in 1953,U.S. General Curtis LeMay,the head of the Strategic 
Air Command during the Korean War,told the Office of Air Force History in 1984: 
"After destroying North Korea's seventy eight cities and thousands of her villages 
and needlessly killing countless numbers of civilians" Over a period of three years
or so we killed off "what" twenty percent of the population" of the DPRK.The 
destruction of a nation was criminal and the death toll was more than 30 percent 
of the total population of the DPRK.For the same war crimes in Europe,the Nazis 
had been tried at Nuremberg.LeMay added: "It is now believed that the population 
north of the imposed [artificial] 38th Parallel lost nearly a third its population 
of 8-9 million people during the 37-month long U.S. aggressive war,1950-1953,
perhaps an unprecedented percentage of mortality suffered by one nation due to the 
belligerence of another", the U.S.
   During the U.S. war on the DPRK,the U.S. Air Force dropped more bombs on the 
DPRK than was dropped during the whole of U.S. Pacific War against Japan.The 
criminal U.S. aggression against the DPRK killed more than 4 million Korean 
civilians and ravaged a once bountiful nation.It was a deliberate act of genocide 
against defenseless people.One of the U.S. regime's most decorated war criminals,
General Douglas MacArthur,testified to Congress in 1951:"I have never seen such 
devastation,you are perpetuating a slaughter such as I have never heard of in the 
history of mankind." The U.S. political establishment has never been held to 
account for its war crimes in the Korean Peninsula or elsewhere. It is evident that
the U.S. political establishment lacks the compunction about committing war crimes
against defenseless civilians.
     Since 1953,the people of DPRK have been under siege and barbarous economic 
sanctions,imposed by U.S. attack dog,the United Nations Security Council (UNSC),
which has become the U.S. instrument of war and terror.As always, these sanctions 
are enforced by the Anglo-Zionist regime and its vassal-state allies. 
On September 11,2017,the UNSC imposed a raft of new barbarous sanctions on the 
DPRK,including a ban on the sale of natural gas liquids to the North-East Asian 
nation,and on its textile exports,while also prohibiting Member States from 
providing work authorizations to its nationals.Earlier,on June 3RD,2017,the UNSC 
voted to impose a wave of sanctions against the DPRK.The UNSC first imposed 
sanctions on North Korea in 2006,following the DPRK's ballistic missile test.
Resolution 1718 of that year also provided for a Security Council Sanctions 
Committee.Sanctions were extended in 2009 following a nuclear test by the DPRK,and 
a UNSC Panel of Experts was created to assist the 1718 Sanctions Committee (DPRK) 
which oversees the sanctions imposed.In 2013,the UNSC approved two resolutions
imposing further sanctions on the DPRK,the first in response to the DPRK's launch 
of a satellite and the second in response to the DPRK third nuclear test.A March
2016 UNSC Resolution imposed and expanded arms embargo and non-proliferation 
measures.Then,in November 2016,Australia co-sponsored a UNSC motion to impose 
further sanctions on the DPRK to condemn the DPRK's September 9,2016 nuclear test.
   The resultant Resolution 2321 was unanimously adopted by the Security Council 
on November 30,2016. On June 2,2017,the same day as Australia's autonomous 
sanctions were announced,the UNSC adopted Resolution 2356 (2017),which extended 
the number and scope of sanctions against the DPRK. "Predictably,in its servile 
fashion,the Security Council,which failed to hold an emergency meeting condemning 
the U.S.-ROK military provocations, in its melodramatic and bellicose fashion held
an emergency meeting at 8 PM on August 29, "condemning the August 28 ballistic 
missile launch by the DPRK." Yet, in a curiously revealing, and certainly 
unintended way, the Security Council confessed its barbaric cruelty toward North 
Korea by listing its barbaric sanction resolutions, a lengthy list of torture:
Resolution 1675 (2006), 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013), 2094 (2013), 2270 
(2016), 2321 (2016), 2356 (2017), 2371 (2017) and 2375 (2017).  It shows that the 
UNSC is nothing more than a tool used by the Anglo-Zionist ruling class to advance 
Anglo-Zionist interests. "In effect, when the UNSC is brought before the bar 
of history, and condemned for crimes against humanity, it will have made the 
investigators, work easier by so neatly listing its attempts to strangle the 
life out of the North Korean people. This most recent resolutions expose the 
sadistic and malicious intent of these resolutions, as fish [and textiles] have 
nothing to do with construction of nuclear weapons and the prohibition of sale 
of fish, one of the indispensable sources of income for the innocent people of 
North Korea, is one of the cruelties intended to starve the Korean people and 
break their spirit.For their courage and integrity shames and condemns the 
opportunism, greed and psychopathology that defines the behaviour of their 
tormenters",writes Carla Stea,a credited journalist at the UN in New York,who just
returned from a visit to the DPRK.The irony of this is,the U.S. that developed,
tested and used nuclear weapons.The U.S. first used nuclear bombs not on military 
targets but on Japanese civilians.It was history's most heinous act of terrorism 
that can never be forgotten.
    All UNSC resolutions against the DPRK have been illegal and scandalous 
resolutions serving Anglo-Zionist interests and in attempts to strangle the life 
out of the North Korean people. "The sanctions are,in themselves aggressive action,
intended to weaken and demoralize the intended nation-targeted victim and 
ultimately destroy the will,the spirit and unity of the nation." Under 
international law and treaties,the DPRK is not doing anything illegal.The DPRK is 
legitimately developing the means to defend its people from the ongoing U.S.-led 
global terror.It is important to remember that,the people of the DPRK are the main 
target of these genocidal sanctions. Like in Iraq, where the U.S. and its allies 
deliberately poisoned Iraq's public water supply,destroyed Iraq's sewage treatment 
plants and denied the Iraqi people necessary medicines,including vaccines for the 
sole purpose of killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children.Syria is under the 
same U.S.-imposed genocidal sanctions and destructive war.
     The latest round of sanctions,targeted the DPRK's exports of coal and various 
metals with the goal of reducing the nation's export revenue by 25 percent.In 
addition,the U.S. regime continues its daily military provocation of the DPRK,
depicted as "show of force". As Carla Stea observes: "For the past decades,the DPRK 
has repeatedly requested the Security Council to convene,on an emergency basis,
meetings to discuss and halt the provocative U.S.-South Korea military manoeuvres.
All urgent requests by the DPRK have been denied by the Security Council,which 
holds emergency meetings called by the U.S. so frequently that the Security Council
schedule appears to be determined by the U.S. Although,on August 16,2017, the 
Reuters correspondent provided the opportunity for the UN Secretary-General 
[Antonio Guterres] to appropriately show at least token acknowledgement and 
respect for the agonies of the North Korean people,who are continually terrorized 
by these U.S.-South Korea manoeuvers,he failed to acknowledge the destructive and 
provocative character of the U.S.-South Korea military manoeuvers,thereby tacitly 
endorsing these dangerous,chronic threats to the survival of the DPRK, including 
the frequent violations of the DPRK's airspace  by U.S. nuclear-capable bombers 
threating the DPRK.
    It is an understatement and misleading to call the U.S. regime a "fascist" 
regime.The U.S. regime"controlled by the Anglo-Zionist "Deep State", is far more 
evil than Nazi Germany was.Today, U.S.-led fascism is the real enemy of humanity.
It is a global fascism characterised by a collection of full-blown tyrannies.The 
difference is that today's fascism is more disguised and its victims are not white 
Europeans,but dark skin Arabs and Asians.It is a monstrous regime,second only to 
the Israeli regime.It is a super fascist regime with total monopoly on and control 
of the mass media,the Internet (including the so-called "Social Media") and global 
propaganda,all forms of violence, global terrorism,criminal militarism,global 
financial system,imperialist exploitation,oppression,racism,illegal interference 
in other nations affairs and endless wars of naked aggression.Yet the U.S. regime 
has the audacity to accuse the DPRK of doing what the U.S. regime does in broad 
daylight and on a regular basis,bullying,threating,attacking and invading and 
destroying other sovereign defenceless nations.To understand the U.S.-Israel 
fascist alliance, one should look no further than the ongoing U.S.-sponsored 
terror to destroy and divide Syria. The U.S. and its vassal-regime allies,including
Israel are recruiting,arming and encouraging terrorists to attack the sovereign 
nation Syria which poses no threat to other nations.Without U.S.-supplied weapons,
money and recruits,the terrorists attack on Syria would not have been possible.To 
avoid the fates of Iraq and Libya,Syria had to ask Russia for military assistance.
The DPRK knows very well how valuable its steadfast commitment to its nuclear 
program.
   Unashamedly,Russia and China backed the recent U.S.-drafted resolutions banning 
exports of coal,iron,lead ore,seafood,textile exports and capping the DPRK's 
imports of crude oil.Both,China and Russia are trying to save face by continuously
ranting about resolving the nuclear issue peacefully when in fact they became more
business-like and complicit in U.S. barbarism against the DPRK.Instead,China and 
Russia should pressure the U.S. to sign a permanent peace treaty with the DPRK,
and insist ending the occupation of South Korea and Japan.
   Russia which is under U.S.-led sanctions is an interesting case.Since the 
demise of the USSR,Russia became a subcontractor to U.S. foreign policy.Despite 
the sanctions imposed on Russia by the U.S. and the disparaging treatment of
Russian diplomats and citizens by authorities U.S., including police raids on and 
ransacking (and seizure) of Russia's diplomatic properties,Russia is desperately 
trying to gain favor with the U.S. and be recognized as a "partner' in this 
monstrous Anglo-Zionist fascism.The U.S. has no partners or allies;only obedient 
vassals.President Vladimir Putin, who can't stop crawling to Anglo-Zionist leaders,
has recently acknowledged Russia's obsequious servility to the U.S. when he said: 
"It's ridiculous to put us on the same (sanctions) list as North Korea and then 
ask for our help in imposing sanctions on North Korea."  Russia,of course,has a
history of treacherous betrayals of her allies and friends.Iraq,Yugoslavia,Libya 
and Armenia are good examples.
   It is worth noting that the U.S. political and media establishments (the Deep 
State) considers Russia as America's "formidable enemy". Russia's self-serving 
policies"supporting and voting for U.S. terror are rightly described as 
"unprincipled opportunism". As a permanent member of UNSC,the least Russia can do 
is support UN Charter and international law.Unfortunately,Russia is (very often) 
doing the opposite,licking Washington's blood-soaked boots.
   Russia is supporting the genocidal sanctions against the people of the DRPK 
despite the DPRK being the victim of Anglo-Zionist imperialism.As Christopher 
Black,an international war crimes lawyer based in Canada pointed out:"The fact 
that the U.S.,as part of the UNSC is imposing sanctions on a country it is 
threatening is hypocritical and unjust.That the Russians and Chinese have joined 
the U.S. in this,instead of calling for sanctions against the U.S. for its threats 
against the DPRK and its new military exercises,which are a clear and present 
danger to the DPRK are shameful.If the Russians and Chinese are sincere why don't
they insist that the U.S. draw down its forces,there so the DPRK feels less 
threatened and take steps to guarantee the security of the DPRK" They do not 
explain their actions but their actions make them collaborators with the U.S. 
against the DPRK." Moreover, the recent UNSC Resolution 2270 against DPRK is a 
flagrant violation of international law and UN Charter."One of the most infamous 
and provocative resolutions adopted in the history of the UNSC is Resolution 2270
(2016),adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The unconscionable cruelty of 
this resolution literally taunts and baits the DPRK to react,as the Resolution 
strangles the economy of the DPRK,inevitably causing intolerable suffering to the 
people of that bullied nation", says Carla Stea.
     The DPRK is paying a heavy price to protect its independence and sovereignty 
rights. The heroic people of the DPRK have been under brutal and inhumane 
U.S.-orchestrated siege for decades.The UNSC's genocidal sanctions are comparable 
to the genocidal sanctions enforced on Iraq and now Syria.It was the same policy,
of collective punishment,perfected by Nazi Germany and used in its extermination 
campaign in Nazi-occupied Soviet territories during WW II.The same goes for the 
civilian population of Syria and the Palestinians in Gaza.The aim of these 
barbarous genocidal sanctions is a collective punishment to inflict great 
suffering on the people of the DPRK.Indeed,the leading Anglo-Zionist's mouthpiece,
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ),argued that starving the people of the DPRK to death
is the most humane way to solve the nuclear issue (The Wall Street Journal,
04/09/2017). Collective punishment of civilians is a war crime under international
law.That is what is the Anglo-Zionists have been doing to the Palestinians in 
Palestine since 1947,a premeditated slow-pace Palestinian Holocaust.
   U.S.-led criminal policy of siege (and sanctions) is being wielded a powerful 
weapon across the world like never.The DPRK is facing an existential threat and is 
legally and rightly building its defenses to defend its people and preserves its 
sovereignty and security in the face of U.S. naked aggression. The DPRK has not 
forgotten U.S. barbaric aggression and extermination atrocities against its people 
(1950-1953).The U.S.-led war on the DPRK was an asymmetrical conflict in which the
U.S. monopolized the skies, raining down ruin.Four million Koreans,the clear 
majority of them civilians.were killed.The DPRK lost 30 percent of its population.
It was a premeditated racist genocide against a defenseless people who resisted 
three years of U.S. terror heroically.When asked to comment on a U.S. pre-emptive 
nuclear strike on the DPRK,Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC),a self-proclaimed
Anglo-Zionist responded with fascistic candor: "Yes,it would be terrible,but the 
war would be over there.It wouldn't be here.It would be bad for the Korean 
Peninsula,it would be bad for China,it would be bad for Japan it would be bad for
South Korea,it would be the end of North Korea but what it would not do is hit 
America". Who has the audacity to question the DPRK right for self-defense against 
a criminal entity that is shown to be the greatest threat to international 
security"
    The nuclear issue is a plot to scapegoat the DPRK.It is a deception and a 
pretext to justify U.S. aggression,and more importantly a pretext orchestrated to 
justify the stationing of nuclear missile on China's borders.The decades-long U.S.
war threats against the DPRK has included numerous threats of nuclear annihilation 
and the deployment of nuclear weapons into South Korea and Japan that threaten 
China and Russia.Indeed,"Washington gung-ho approach to the DPRK has served to 
destabilize the region and given the U.S. a perfect cover for expanding its 
strategic forces on the far-east borders of China and Russia", writes Finian 
Cunningham.The DPRK (or Chairman Kim Jong-Un) is not suicidal, crazy or murderous 
regime like many of U.S. allies,Israel,India,Columbia,the Philippines,Egypt,the 
United Arab Emirates,Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are just a few examples of murderous
regimes that the U.S. calls "democratic" regimes.The DPRK is a wise and reasonable 
state which is longing for peaceful resolution and prepares to live in peaceful
coexistence with its neighbors.
   It is important to remember that,the hypocrisy of nuclear weapons is blaring 
when it comes to the DPRK's peaceful nuclear program.Western hypocrites who are 
concern about the DPRK's nuclear weapons,should look no further than the illegal 
acquisition of large arsenals of nuclear weapons' estimated to be between 300 and 
400 nuclear warheads,by the world's greatest terrorism entity, Israel. The Israeli
fascist regime,second only to its U.S. financier,poses enormous threat to the 
security of the region and to world peace in general.As always,the U.S. is 
determined to shift the global spotlight away from Israel's massive,covert,nuclear 
weapons program,Israel war crimes against the Palestinians and Israel Jewish-only 
colonization of Palestine.The DPRK and Iran are the Anglo-Zionists target to 
deflect attention away from Israel.The terrorist entity has been threatening,and
attacking neighboring countries non-stop,and has committed horrific crimes against 
Arab civilians in Palestine,Lebanon and in Syria.Wealthy U.S. Jews and supporters 
of Israel have called on Trump to "nuke" Iran instead of negotiating with Iran.
People are being brainwashed by a steady diet of anti-DPRK propaganda into holding 
unequivocally an anti-DPRK attitudes.
    The DPRK has not attacked or threatened the U.S. or another UN member nation.
The DPRK made it clear that it will retaliate if it is attacked.The DPRK seeks 
peace and coexistence.In fact,Defence Secretary Jim "Mad Dog" Mattis said:"Those 
missiles are not directly threatening any of us." And when asked why the military 
didn't shoot them down.Re said:"The bottom line is that, when the missiles" were 
they to be a threat,whether it be to U.S. territory,Guam,obviously Japan,Japan's 
territory,that would elicit a different response from us". Hence,the DPRK is not 
threatening the U.S. or any other nation.The DPRK missiles and nuclear program are 
intended as a deterrent to U.S. ongoing nuclear threats.In other words,it is 
self-defense against the U.S. 6,800 nuclear warheads.It is preposterous to call 
the DPRK a threat.
   The real threat to world's peace and humanity is the U.S. regime.The U.S. 
regime is overtly refusing to resolve the crisis peacefully and instead threatened 
to destroy the DPRK.Reading from the Nazis. aggression manual at the UN General 
Assembly on September 20,2017, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to "totally 
destroy North Kora" in flagrant violation of international law and UN Charter.
Trump's speech was without historical context and was nothing but expletives and a 
pile of delusional allegations.Trump indicated an intent to commit genocide and 
crimes against humanity. "Such unilateral use of military force is also a 
violation of the Nuremberg principles which condemned Nazi Germany for promulgating
 similar baseless justification for its aggression", write Christopher Black. 
Like his violent predecessors,Trump threatened to attack any nation that refuses to
submit to Anglo-Zionist dictates,including the DPRK,Iran and Venezuela.
  It has become a U.S. ritual to threat the DPRK with destruction.Colin Powell, 
another U.S. war criminal, has on two occasions blithely threatened to turn DPRK 
into "charcoal briquette". These were criminal threats (genocidal threats to kill 
people) against a nation of 25 million people that for three years had 50,000 
gallons of Napalm dropped on it by the U.S. regime.As New York University 
Professor of Psychiatry and Law, James Gilligan observed: Trump "publicly boasts 
of violence and has threatened violence.He has urged followers to beat up 
protesters.He approves of torture.He has boasted of his ability to commit and get 
away with sexual assault". Hence, Trump is a dangerous sociopathic front man of t
he dark forces of the Anglo-Zionist Deep State.
     For more than six decades,the U.S. Anglo-Zionist political establishment has 
been begging for war to "destroy" the DPRK,bribing and coercing other nations to 
support its criminal policy towards the people of the DPRK.As always,U.S. threats 
coupled with a Nazi-like propaganda that distort and sanitize Western criminal 
conduct and promote the ongoing occupation of South Korea and Japan.Instead of 
contemplating the use of nuclear weapons to commit genocide against the people of 
the DPRK,the U.S. should,at the very least, critically examine its criminal 
behavior on the Korea Peninsula over the past 72 years. U.S. politicians are 
accustomed to proclaiming that "all options are on the table",including 
pre-emptive nuclear attacks.
     The DPRK survived barbarism and is standing-up to Anglo-Zionist fascism. The 
people of the DPRK are not "starving" as Western propagandists like to rant.The 
people of DPRK are building their country and their formidable defense force,
despite the long genocidal sanctions imposed upon it.According to UNESCO,public 
education in the DPRK is universal and fully state-funded."Education in North Korea
is free,compulsory and universal for 11 years,from ages four to 15,in state-run 
schools.The national literacy rate for citizens 15 years of age and older is 99 
percent," reported the Library of Congress,Federal Research Division in July 2007".
The DPRK is a country that must be described as a paradise for children,providing 
excellent,up-to-date health care and education,free of charge,an achievement that 
few western capitalist countries can demonstrate.World Health Organization's 
Director General,Margaret Chan,who visited the DPRK in April 2017 said:The DPRK 
"health system is the envy of the developing world.The DPRK had no lack of doctors 
and nurses". According to WHO,some 99 percent of the population has access to 
sanitation and 100 percent has access to drinking water". True socialism is the 
cure against the disease of Western capitalism.
   The DPRK is not and cannot be the economic basket case and technological 
backwater.The DPRK success in making its own smart phones and tablets and in 
developing its own apparently extensive intranet (the "Kwangmyong") suggests it 
must have a reasonably sophisticated computer and IT industry it can draw upon.The
DPRK per capita annual GDP growth rates of 9 percent,as revealed by the Hyundai
Research Institute makes it one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
   Finally, the DPRK has not invaded,attacked or threatened any country in its 
entire history.The people of the DPRK are yearning for peace on equal terms. 
The Anglo-Zionists warmongering about the DPRK nuclear weapons is a pretext to 
justify U.S. military occupation of Japan and South Korea and the stationing of 
the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) interceptor missile system in 
South Korea,threatening China and Russia.The people of the DPRK reject the 
Anglo-Zionists worldview and they are worried "with good reason"about Anglo-Zionist 
murderous aggression and criminal destruction of defenceless nations like Iraq,
Afghanistan,Somalia,Libya,Syria and Yemen.In Yemen,the U.S.-Britain sponsored 
Saudi Arabia's terror has caused mass starvation and a cholera epidemic that is 
worse than any the world has witnessed in the past 50 years, with the latest
estimate of Yemeni victims at well over half a million lives.The DPRK is determined
never to submit to threats and will not conform to Anglo-Zionist dictates.There is 
no military solution to the U.S.-orchestrated conflict on the Korean Peninsula. 
The U.S. should respect DPRK;s sovereignty and stop its military provocations of 
the DPRK. 
       In the past I have predicted World War III was coming soon.It didn't happen \
in 2017.But the chances have increased that it will be occurring in 2018.Just look 
at the situation. Now America is using bellicose language by threatening to 
annihilate the DPRK.North Korea is not going to give up their nuclear weapons and 
intends to conduct more nuclear weapons tests.If America does nothing they will be 
perceived on the world stage as a paper tiger.So I believe in 2018 the USA will 
perform a pre-emptive strike on the DPRK and the results will be catastrophic. 
    The people of the Korean Peninsula suffered great atrocities and hardships. 
For more than six decades,they had made great sacrifices to defend their freedom 
and sovereignty in the face of war and genocidal sanctions.The people of the DPRK 
have stood their ground because they knew that this is a long U.S. war to destroy 
their nation and exterminate them.Their nation stands as a reminder of defiance 
against barbarism.
   The U.S. threat against the DPRK is an intent to commit genocide in violation 
of international law and UN Charter.The DPRK has exerted every possible effort to 
live in peace,prompted by its sincere desire to realize the demilitarization of 
the Korean Peninsula.Instead of preparing for war,the U.S. should give up its 
gangster mentality,withdraw its (unwelcomed) troops in South Korea,sign a 
long-lasting peace treaty and a non-aggressive pact with the DPRK. Solving the 
Korean Peninsula crisis peacefully is in everyone's interests and will contribute
to world's peace.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SINKING OF THE USS LIBERTY

  
   June 8th marked the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the USS Liberty.On
June 8,1967 the Israeli pilots DELIBERATELY attacked the USS LIBERTY near 
the Sinai peninsula during Israel's "Six Day War" with Egypt.They intended 
to use the crew of the USS Liberty as sacrificial lambs,blame the attack on 
Egypt to bring America into the "Six Day War".Further the US government was 
complicit. They knew about this. The only reason the plan fell through was 
because several members of the USS Liberty survived.The original plan was to
kill ALL crew members. The official narrative the US government released to 
the press at the time was that this was an "accident" and the surviving crew
members were departed to different parts of the world and were instructed to
be quiet about this.Up until recently the narrative that the sinking of the 
USS Liberty was an accident was the universally held view.However several 
investigators have uncovered the truth. 
  A former Navy attorney who helped lead the military investigation of the 
1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty that killed 34 American servicemen 
says former President Lyndon Johnson and his defense secretary,Robert 
McNamara, ordered that the inquiry conclude the incident was an accident.
   In a signed affidavit released at a Capitol Hill news conference,retired 
Capt. Ward Boston said Johnson and McNamara told those heading the Navy's 
inquiry to "conclude that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity' 
despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary."
   It was "one of the classic all-American cover-ups," said retired Admiral 
Thomas Moorer, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman who spent a year 
investigating the attack as part of an independent panel he formed with 
other former military officials.The panel also included a former US 
ambassador to Saudi Arabia,James Akins.
     "Why would our government put Israel's interests ahead of our own?" 
Moorer asked from his wheelchair at the news conference.He was chief of 
naval operations at the time of the attack.
    Moorer,who has long held that the attack was a deliberate act,wants 
Congress to investigate. 
    Fifteen years after the attack,an Israeli pilot approached Liberty 
survivors and then held extensive interviews with former Congressman 
Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey about his role.According to this senior Israeli 
lead pilot,he recognized the Liberty as American immediately,so informed 
his headquarters and was told to ignore the American flag and continue 
his attack.He refused to do so and returned to base,where he was arrested.
   Later, a dual-citizen Israeli major told survivors that he was in an 
Israeli war room where he heard that pilot's radio report.The attacking 
pilots and 
everyone in the Israeli war room knew that they were attacking an American 
ship,the major said.He recanted the statement only after he received 
threatening phone calls from Israel.
    The pilot's protests also were heard by radio monitors in the U.S. 
Embassy in Lebanon.Then-U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dwight Porter has 
confirmed this.
    Porter told his story to syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert 
Novak and offered to submit to further questioning by authorities.
Unfortunately,no one in the U.S. government has any interest in hearing 
these first-person accounts of Israeli treachery.
   Israel attacked the USS Liberty using UNMARKED AIRCRAFT. This is the 
single fact which proves Israel knew exactly who they were attacking.Israel's
story is that they thought USS Liberty was an Egyptian ship and therefore a 
legitimate target of war.Were that true,there would be no reason to attack a
supposedly Egyptian ship with unmarked aircraft.The only possible reason to 
use unmarked aircraft to attack the ship is that Israel knew it was an 
American ship and intended to sink it,then to blame the attack on Egypt.
   Moorer,who as top legal council to the official investigation is in a 
position to know,agrees that Israel intended to sink the USS Liberty and 
blame Egypt for it,thus dragging the United States into a war on Israel's 
behalf.This seems to be a common trick of Israel.Starting with the Lavon 
affair,through the USS Liberty,to the fake radio transmitter that tricked 
Reagan into attacking Libya,to potentially 9-11 itself,Israel's game is to 
frame Arabs and set them up as targets for the United States.
   The official US investigation is discredited.And with it,every claim of 
innocence for Israel that relied on the official investigation as a source.
  The real question facing the American people is why the US Government 
seems more concerned with protecting Israel after they are caught playing 
these dirty tricks,rather than doing something to convince Israel not to 
kill any more Americans.
   The worst thing about this incident is that the family of these victims 
have never known the truth about what really happened to their loved ones.

BITCOIN



  In January of 2017 one BITCOIN sold for $750. (US) and recently it sold for 
$19,000. (US). People have already become millionaires with BITCOIN.In 2009 
one BITCOIN sold for less than one US dollar. Some speculate that one BITCOIN may 
go up to one BITCOIN costing a trillion dollars.No one really knows.
However one thing is pretty certain to bring down world dominance of the US dollar.
   If USA doesn't like you and they impose sanctions upon you you are 
pretty much fucked.But governments throughout the world are figuring out ways to 
go around US sanctions.China gas started its own banking system,China will trade 
with others by using gold or Chinese yuan. Then there is BITCOIN.
  Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and worldwide payment system.It is the first
decentralized digital currency,as the system works without a central bank or single
administrator.The network is peer-to-peer and transactions take place between 
users directly through the use of cryptography,without an intermediary.
These transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in an immutable 
public distributed ledger called a blockchain.Bitcoin was invented by an unknown 
person or group of people under the name Satoshi Nakamoto and released as 
open-source software in 2009.
   Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining.They can be 
exchanged for other currencies,products and services.As of February 2015,over 
100,000 merchants and vendors accepted bitcoin as payment.Research produced by 
Cambridge University estimates that in 2017,there are 2.9 to 5.8 million unique 
users using a cryptocurrency wallet,most of them using bitcoin.
  Bitcoin is to banks and fiat currency like what the printing press was to the 
Catholic Church.

19th NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA


    If you were to ask some flag waving American moron about the Communist party of
China he or she would probably tell you it is a monolithic authoritarian 
institution.How misinformed.The Chinese communist party has an estimated 89 million
members,more than the population of Germany,with members from many diverse 
backgrounds.They send their representatives to meet in Beijing.2280 delegates meet 
in Beijing.At the meeting it is very quiet and sedate unlike the US congress or the
British parliament.They come to discuss the future of China for at least the next 
five years and not to exchange insults.
  The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (commonly referred to 
as Shejii D Chinese:) was held at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing,between 
18 and 24 October 2017.Preparations for the 19th National Congress began in 2016
and ended with a plenary session of the Central Committee a few days prior to the 
Congress.In 2016,local and provincial party organizations began electing delegates 
to the congress as well as receiving and amending party documents.
    During the congress,a new guiding ideology,labelled Xi Jinping Thought on 
Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,was written into the party's 
constitution.It marked the first time since Mao Zedong Thought that a living 
party leader has enshrined into the party constitution an ideology named after 
himself.The Congress also emphasized strengthening socialism with Chinese 
characteristics,party-building and socialist rule of law,and setting concrete 
timelines for achieving development goals,such as building a moderately prosperous 
society and achieving "socialist modernization." It was also noted for rallying 
China to play a more substantial role internationally.
   The 19th National Congress endorsed the membership list of the Central 
Commission for Discipline Inspection and elected the Central Committee,
which in turn approved the members of the Politburo and its Standing Committee.
Five members of the 18th Politburo Standing Committee left the body 
due to having reached retirement age and five new members joined the 19th Standing 
Committee:Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, and Han Zheng.
   The 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party,the most important 
political event in China,kicked off on October 18 with a marathon speech 
of three-and-a-half hours by China's president and party chief,Xi Jinping. Already 
the most dominant Chinese leader in decades,Xi is expected to further 
consolidate his power at the weeklong leadership reshuffle event,held every five 
years.His speech outlines China's policy direction in all major fields 
until the next congress,or even longer.But it was so tortuously long that many of 
his points may have been lost on the audience,including party elders 
who kept checking their watches.We've watched the entire session and whittled it
down to these three most important takeaways:
   Xi set a timetable for China's ultimate economic goal Xi said the theme of this 
year's congress is to never forget the party's founding purpose,which now includes
the realization of :the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation"also known as 
the "Chinese Dream",a catchphrase he put forward shortly after taking power five 
years ago.
  To fulfill this great dream,Xi has inherited two lofty economic targets set by 
the party's previous leadership together known as "two centennial goals." 
The first centennial goal is to build a "moderately prosperous society" by wiping 
out poverty by 2021,the 100th anniversary of the party's founding. 
The second and more challenging goal is to turn China into a "fully developed 
nation" by 2049,the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic.
In his speech,Xi for the first time outlined a specific timetable for reaching the 
second centennial goal.He said the party will first lead China to "basically 
realize socialist modernization, by 2035,when,among other things,the nation will 
have narrowed its wealth gap and improved its environment significantly.And the 
second stage will last from 2035-2050, during which China will become a leading 
global power and the Chinese people will basically enjoy "common property." By 
then,Xi said, "the Chinese nation will stand with a more high-spirited image in 
the family of nations."
    Theorist Xi put his stamp on the party's forward guidance.
    Although the congress report is traditionally a reflection of common policy
 ground reached by senior party leaders,and not one man's view, Xi appears to have 
successfully put his stamp on his work report.He repeatedly used his own buzz terms
to summarize the party's ideological work,including the catchy :four comprehensives,"
and "scrape the poison off the bone." (No, you don't need to know what these are. 
Okay,fine,the second one refers to fighting corruption, a hallmark of Xi's time at 
the top.)
  Prominently, Xi rolled out his thinking for the country in the years to come.It's
called "Thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era," which 
takes a well-worn phrase and tacks a few extra words on it to make it his own.Xi
explained the notion in 14 bullet points that basically say" the party leads 
everything,everywhere," as he noted in the first point.The bullet points cover 
everything from national security to elder care to reform,which includes "the 
determination to get rid of all outdated thinking and ideas and all institutional 
ailments." 
    Speculation has been rife in the run-up to the congress that Xi will attach his
own name to a signature policy to be enshrined in the party constitution to sum up
his legacy.The party will amend the constitution during the session, which ends 
next week.The phrase "Thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new 
era" appears to be the term they'll amend with.
   Backing up his claim of a "new era," Xi declared that "the principal contradiction"
facing China's socialist society has evolved.For the past decades,the contradiction
has always been between "the ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people
and backward social production." Now, it is between "unbalanced and inadequate 
development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life," Xi said.
It appears that China's politics textbooks will go through an overhaul.
   Globalist Xi says China's political system can be a model for the world.
   Ever since positioning himself as a defender of globalization during his big 
speech at the Davos economic meeting earlier this year, Xi has led,or at 
least angled to lead,China in taking a more assertive role on issues including 
trade and climate change.And in fact Xi stated early on in his speech that 
China is now "taking a driving seat" when it comes to fighting climate change.
  But Xi also said China's political model can make a contribution to the world.He
said the political system of "socialism with Chinese characteristics" 
is "a new choice" for other developing nations seeking to grow economically while 
maintaining their independence.
    The party has always said China will never copy the political systems of other 
countries "the western notion of democracy in particular"although Xi did say in his 
speech that China should learn from other civilizations.Conversely,Xi seems to be 
suggesting that if other countries want to look to China for inspiration,they 
should feel free.
   If after this taste,you absolutely want more,you can watch the entire thing 
yourself at:https://youtu.be/wEn8AZqAAf4

  Xi predicts by 2050 China will be #1. It may be sooner.

CATALAN INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM


The Catalan independence referendum of 2017,also known by the numeronym 1-O 
(for "1 October") in Spanish and Catalan media,was an independence referendum 
held on October 1,2017 in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia,passed by 
the Parliament of Catalonia and called by the Generalitat de Catalunya.It was 
declared illegal on September 7,2017 and suspended by the Constitutional Court of 
Spain after a request from the Spanish government,who declared it a breach of the
Spanish Constitution of 1978.Additionally,in early September the High Court of 
Justice of Catalonia had issued orders to the police to try to prevent it,including
the detention of various persons responsible for its preparation.Due to the many
irregularities in the administration of the vote (with people being able to vote 
more than once in some places despite organizers' claims to the contrary and on 
whether there was any control about it),as well as to the use of force by the 
National Police and Civil Guard,international observers invited by the Generalitat 
declared that the referendum failed to meet the minimum international standards 
for elections.
    The referendum was approved by the Catalan parliament in a session on 
September 6,2017 along with a law which states that independence would be binding 
with a simple majority,without requiring a minimum turnout.After being suspended,
the law was finally declared void on 17 October and is also illegal according to 
the Catalan Statutes of Autonomy which require a two third majority in the Catalan
parliament for any change to Catalonia's status.
   The referendum question,which voters answered with "Yes" or "No", was "Do you 
want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic". 
The "Yes" side won, with 2,044,038 (92.01%) voting for independence and 177,547 
(7.99%) voting against,on a turnout of 43.03%. The Catalan government estimated
that up to 770,000 votes were not cast due to polling stations being closed off 
during the police crackdown,although the "universal census" system introduced 
earlier in the day allowed electors to vote in any given polling station. Catalan 
government officials have argued that the turnout would have been higher were it 
not for Spanish police suppression of the vote,On the other hand,many voters who 
did not support Catalan independence did not turn out,as the constitutional 
political parties asked citizens to not participate in what they considered an 
illegal referendum.
   On the day of the referendum,the inaction of the autonomous police force of 
Catalonia,the Mossos d'Esquadra,allowed polling stations to open. The National 
Police Corps and the Guardia Civil intervened and raided polling stations after 
they opened. 893 civilians and 431 agents of the Nacional Police and the Guardia 
Civil were reported to have been injured initially.According to various sources 
these previously reported figures may have been exaggerated.According to the judge 
from Barcelona that is currently investigating the accusations of police violence 
there were 218 persons injured on that day,
20 of which were agents.The final official numbers by the Catalan government show 
that 1066 civilians and 11 agents of the National Police and the Guardia Civil,
and 1 from the regional police the Mossos d'Esquadra were injured.
   The Mossos d'Esquadra are being investigated for disobedience,for not having 
complied with the orders of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia to prevent
the referendum.Josep Llues Trapero Rlvarez, the Mossos d'Esquadra Major, is being 
investigated for sedition by the Spanish National Court.The United Nations High 
Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al, urged the Spanish government to 
probe all acts of violence that took place to prevent the referendum.

2017 FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS


  The 2017 French presidential election was held on April 23 and May 7,2017.As no 
candidate won a majority in the first round on April 23, a run-off was held between
the top two candidates,Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! and Marine Le Pen of the 
National Front (FN),which Macron won by a decisive margin on May 7. The presidential
election was followed by legislative elections to elect members of the National
Assembly on June 11 AND 18.Incumbent president Francois Hollande of the Socialist 
Party (PS) was eligible to run for a second term,but declared on December 1,2016
that he would not seek reelection in light of low approval ratings,making him the 
first incumbent president of the Fifth Republic not to seek re-election.
   Francois Fillon of the Republicans (LR),after winning the party's first open 
primary and Marine Le Pen of the National Front led first-round opinion polls 
in November 2016 and mid-January 2017.Polls tightened considerably by late January,
and after the publication of revelations that Fillon employed family members in 
possibly fictitious jobs in a series of politico-financial affairs that came to be 
colloquially known as "Penelopegate",Macron overtook Fillon to place consistently 
second in first-round polling.At the same time,Benoit Hamon won the Socialist
primary,entering fourth place in the polls.After strong debate performances,
Jean-Luc Melenchon of la France Insoumise rose significantly in polls in late March,
overtaking Hamon to place just below Fillon.
   The first round was held under a state of emergency that was declared following 
the November 2015 Paris attacks.Following the result of the first round,Macron and 
Le Pen continued to the May 7 runoff.It was the first time since 2002 that a
National Front candidate continued to the second round and the first time in the 
history of the Fifth Republic that the runoff did not include a nominee of the 
traditional left or right parties;their combined share of the vote from eligible 
voters,at approximately 26%,was also a historic low.
   Estimations of the result of the second round on May 7 indicated that Macron had
been elected by a decisive margin,and Le Pen immediately conceded defeat.
After the Interior Ministry published preliminary results,the official result of 
the second round was proclaimed by the Constitutional Council on May 10. 
Macron took office on May 14, becoming the youngest president in French history 
and youngest head of state since Napoleon and named Douard Philippe as Prime 
Minister on May 15,the initial government was assembled on May 17,and legislative 
elections on June 11 and 18 gave Macron a substantial majority.

ROBERT MUGABE AFTER 37 YEARS RESIGNS AS PRESIDENT OF ZIMBABWE 


  Bowing to a nation that had turned against him,nn November 21,2017,Robert Mugabe
resigned as president of Zimbabwe, ending his 37-year rule and sparking 
scenes of wild celebration throughout the capital city.
     House of Assembly speaker Jacob Mudenda announced the resignation during a 
joint sitting of lawmakers in Harare,the capital,called to vote on a motion of  
impeachment of Mugabe,who at 93 was the world's oldest-serving leader.Cars honked 
their horns and cheers filled the streets as a party mood gripped the Harare city 
center.
  Mugabe's resignation came days after the Zimbabwe African National 
Union-Patriotic Front party fired him as its leader and ordered him to step down. 
Emmerson Mnangagwa,75,who Mugabe dismissed as vice president in November took over 
as interim leader and be Zanu-PF's presidential candidate in elections next year,
the party said.
   :We have fought the lion and won," Lovemore Matuke, Zanu-PF's chief 
parliamentary whip,said in an interview after the announcement. A new interim
president will take over in the next 48 hours,he said.
   The ruling party's decision to dump the president came four days after the 
military placed him under house arrest and detained several of his closest 
allies-a move triggered by Mnangagwa's dismissal.Mugabe initially dug in his 
heels,missing a party deadline to quit by noon on Monday or face impeachment, 
before finally agreeing to go.
    Armed forces commander Constantino Chiwenga,who led the military takeover, 
said any acts of vengeance would "be dealt with severely," during a press The 
ruling party's decision to dump the president came four days after the military 
placed him under house arrest and detained several of his closest allies-a move  
triggered by Mnangagwa's dismissal. Mugabe initially dug in his heels, missing a 
party deadline to quit by noon on Monday or face impeachment, before finally 
agreeing to go.
    Armed forces commander Constantino Chiwenga, who led the military takeover, 
said any acts of vengeance would "be dealt with severely," during a press 
conference on November 21 at the King George IV military barracks in Harare.
   "The ecstatic jubilation on the streets of Harare that evening at the news of
Mugabe's resignation gives some sense of what it is like to live under the heel 
of a dictator," Charles Laurie, head of African analysis at Bath, England-based 
Verisk Maplecroft, said by email."The almost unbelievable tenacity of Mugabe to
resist the will of his people and resign gives some sense of the near 
impossibility of removing this man from power at the ballot box over the past 37
years."
    The moves against Mugabe were the culmination of a battle for control of the 
ruling party between a military-aligned faction that's coalesced around 
Mnangagwa and another known as the Generation-40, which wants the president's wife,
Grace Mugabe,to succeed him. Mnangagwa emerged as the victor,with the party 
expelling Grace and her allies.
   "It was long overdue.The president could no longer withstand the pressure,"
said Takavira Zhou,a lecturer at Great Zimbabwe University in the city of Masvingo.
   "However,the key issue is when will we have a transitional government and how 
will it work-will Zanu-PF go it alone."
   Mugabe leaves behind an economy in tatters.An estimated 95 percent of the 
workforce is unemployed, public infrastructure is crumbling and there are 
widespread shortages of cash and food.Many of the country's woes are rooted 
in Mugabe's support for the seizure of white-owned farms,which slashed 
agricultural production,export earnings and tax revenue.
  The son of a carpenter and a catechism teacher,Mugabe was born in Zvimba,
a peasant-farming area west of Harare and trained as a primary-school 
teacher.He was introduced to politics while studying at South Africa's Fort
Hare University,and went on to help found the Zimbabwe African National 
Union party in 1963.He was jailed the same year for calling for the violent 
overthrow of Ian Smith's white-minority government.
   "Zimbabwe has an extraordinary opportunity to set itself on a new path," 
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement."Whatever 
short-term  arrangements the government may establish,the path forward must 
lead to free and fair elections.The people of Zimbabwe must choose their own
leaders."
    During his 11-year incarceration,Mugabe obtained degrees in economics,
education and law.A year after his release,he fled to Mozambique where he 
later became the leader of the then exiled Zanu,which controlled the 
biggest of two guerrilla armies fighting Rhodesia.
    A U.K.-brokered peace deal that ended the war brought Mugabe to power 
as the elected prime minister in 1980.While he initially preached 
reconciliation, 
violence erupted in 1982 when Mugabe accused his coalition partner,Joshua 
Nkomo,of plotting to overthrow him.He began a military crackdown that 
claimed about 20,000 lives in the western region of Matabeleland,according 
to Genocidewatch.org.
    After February 2000,Mugabe allowed his supporters to take over white-owned 
land,disrupting farming and creating food shortages in a country that had 
once been the biggest corn exporter in southern Africa.And in 2005, he 
authorized a slum-clearance program that left at least 750,000 people 
homeless,according to the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum.
   While Mugabe was the clear winner of the first four post-independence 
elections, his victory in a violence-marred 2008 vote was disputed and his 
party lost parliamentary elections. Mugabe refused to step down and 
international mediators coaxed him into a power-sharing deal with the main 
opposition.That lasted until 2013 when Mugabe reclaimed outright power 
in an election the opposition said was neither free nor fair.
   Mugabe's exit won't necessarily usher in a new era of democracy in 
Zimbabwe, with the country now under the control of some of his hard-line 
former allies, who'd helped him crush dissent.
  Mnangagwa, who's known by his nomme de guerre Ngwena,or crocodile in the 
Shona language,played a particularly pivotal role. He was the chief of 
intelligence when Mugabe ordered the Matabeleland crackdown by North 
Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, and is a leading securocrat within the ruling 
party. He's previously served as the minister of defense and of justice.
   "This is a great moment for the people of Zimbabwe," said Nelson Chamisa,
deputy leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. "We want to 
start a new beginning."

"MILLIONS OF VICTIMS:: US AIDING MASSIVE GENOCIDE IN YEMEN 
AT BEHEST OF SAUDI ARABIA

 

  Civilians in Yemen are suffering from an intense and widespread humanitarian 
crisis.Staggering numbers include 7 million civilians in starvation,and 19 million 
out of the country's 27 million population "in need of some form of aid." However, 
all of this has just gotten far worse thanks to a blockade on humanitarian support 
carried out by Saudi Arabia and aided by the West.It is nothing short of genocide.
   Yemen has been devastated by more than two years of civil war,fostered by the 
Saudi Arabian government and supported militarily by the United States.
President Abd-Rabu Mansour Hadi's government is backed by the Saudi-led coalition 
and is fighting to drive the Houthis out of cities they seized in 2014 and 2015.
   Since the beginning of the US support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen,started by 
Obama and continued by Trump,thousands of innocent civilians,including children,
have been slaughtered in the war. In spite of the fact that the Saudis have been 
caught dropping US bombs on schools,hospitals and marketplaces, directly targeting
civilians,the US continues their support.
   Last week,Houthi rebels in Yemen allegedly launched a ballistic missile toward 
the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh.In response to the attack which killed no one 
the Saudis placed a blockade on all flights in Yemen,including humanitarian aid.
   The blockade has stopped the flow of the much needed medical supplies and food 
and is on the brink of causing the largest genocide by starvation in 
modern history.
    After briefing the UN Security Council on December 7,Mark Lowcock,the UN's 
humanitarian chief,said the move will worsen a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis 
that has pushed millions to the brink of famine and has caused a mass cholera 
epidemic, reports Al Jazeera."I have told the Council that unless those measures 
are lifted-there will be a famine in Yemen,"Lowcock, who visited Yemen late in 
October,told reporters last week.
     "It will not be like the famine that we saw in South Sudan earlier in the 
year,where tens of thousands of people were affected.It will not be like the 
famine which cost 250,000 people their lives in Somalia in 2011," he added.
     However, in spite of Lowcock's warning,the West has refused to act.Children 
are being deliberately starved to death at the hands of a US ally and the West is 
complicit by not only failing to step in and stop it but actually aiding it.
    According to recent reports,sales of weapons to the Saudis by the UK have 
increased by nearly 500% since the start of the slaughter in Yemen.Instead of 
decrying the mass starvation and genocide and pointing out the obvious,that Saudi 
Arabia is buying the West[s silence through the purchase of weapons" Trump praised 
the largest weapons deal in history with the Saudis on December 7.
    "A shot was just taken . . . at Saudi Arabia. And our system knocked it down,"
 Trump said, referring to the Patriot missiles the United States has sold to the 
kingdom. "That's how good we are. Nobody makes what we make, and now we're selling
it all over the world."
   Millions of children are starving to death and the United States government is 
praising the sale of weapons to the country carrying out the starvation.
The recent blockade has become so horrific that other countries have begun to
speak out,yet no one is taking action.
    "I hope there's increasing awareness around the world about the magnitude of 
the crisis in Yemen," said Australian Suze Vanmeegen, the Yemen advocacy 
advisor for the Norwegian Refugee Council.
    "The impact of the current blockade is massive.We're looking at a population 
that is larger than Australia;s.Their risk of a famine or a crisis that is 
unprecedented is very, very high," she said.
    Apparently,the cost of maintaining "freedom" in America now involves aiding a 
terrorist nation in the starvation of an entire country.

LIBYA THE COUNTRY THAT THE USA AND THE EU SO-CALLED
LIBERATED SIX YEARS AGO NOW HAS A BOOMING SLAVE TRADE


  So much for democracy.There is now a booming slave trade in Libya.A video of men 
appearing to be sold at auction in Libya for $400 has shocked the world and 
focused international attention on the exploitation of migrants and refugees in 
the north African country.
  The footage and subsequent investigation conducted by CNN last month has rallied
European and African leaders to take action to stop the abuses. On November 29,the
leaders of Libya,France,Germany,Chad and Niger and four other countries agreed on 
a plan to evacuate thousands of migrants stuck in Libyan detention camps.
     The grainy undercover video appears to show smugglers selling off a dozen men
outside of the capital city Tripoli.
     "Does anybody need a digger" This is a digger,a big strong man, he'll dig,"
said an auctioneer, according to CNN."What am I bid,what am I bid?"
    The report has drawn attention to an issue that aid and migrant groups say has
gone on for years.Libya is the main transit point for refugees and migrants trying 
to reach Europe by sea. In each of the last three years, 150,000 people have made 
the dangerous crossing across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya. For four years in 
a row, 3,000 refugees have died while attempting the journey, according to figures
from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the U.N.'s migration 
agency.

Why is there a slave trade in Libya?

The Libyan Coast Guard supported with funds and resources from the E.U. and more 
specifically,Italy has cracked down on boats smuggling refugees and grants to 
Europe.With estimates of 400,000 to almost one million people now bottled up Libya,
detention centers are overrun and there are mounting reports of robbery, rape and 
murder among migrants,according to a September report by the U.N. human rights 
agency.Conditions in the centers have been described as "horrific," and among 
other abuses,migrants are vulnerable to being sold off as laborers in slave 
auctions.
    "It's a total extortion machine,"Lenard Doyle, Director of Media and 
Communications for the IOM in Geneva tells TIME. "Fueled by the absolute rush of 
migrants through Libya thinking they can get out of poverty, following a dream 
that doesn't exist."
    The IOM said in April that it had documented reports of "slave markets" along 
the migrant routes in North Africa "tormenting hundreds of young African
men bound for Libya."
    "There they become commodities to be bought,sold and discarded when they have 
no more value," Doyle said in the April statement.

How is Libya handling the crisis?

According to CNN, the U.N.-backed Libyan government has launched a formal 
investigation into the allegations.But Libya is largely considered a failed state.
Since Muammar Gaddafi,who ran the country for four decades, was ousted in 2011, 
the country has descended into civil war. A transitional government failed to 
implement rule of law in the country, which has splintered into several factions 
of militias,tribes and gangs.In lawless Libya, many see the slave trade and 
smuggling as a lucrative industry.Tackling the country's humanitarian crisis will 
require international assistance.
   On November 29,Libya reached a deal with E.U. and African leaders to allow the 
emergency repatriation of refugees and migrants facing abuse in its detention 
centers.The government also agreed to open a transit center for vulnerable 
refugees after months of negotiations, according to Reuters. The center is 
intended to safely house people before they are resettled or sent to a third 
country.

How is the international community responding?
   Following the publication of the video, there was outcry from all corners of 
the globe, with some nations recalling their ambassadors from Libya.Protesters 
rallied outside Libyan embassies across Africa and in Europe.
   On November 29,African and European leaders met at a summit in the Ivory Coast 
and agreed on an urgent evacuation plan that would see about 15,000 people flown 
out of Libya.Most of the migrants will be sent back to their home countries.
Speaking at the summit,French President Emmanuel Macron,called the abuse "a crime 
against humanity" and vowed the summit members would "launch concrete military 
and policing action on the ground to dismantle those networks," according to the  
Guardian. The deal also included initiatives to target traffickers, including 
setting up a task force to dismantle trafficking networks, the BBC reports.
   Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari expressed shock at how his compatriots were
being treated "like goats." On November 29, 242 Nigerian migrants were flown out 
of Libya back to Nigeria.
    The day before, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting and said 
it would be "stepping up its work" to stop the abuses.However, the U.N refugee 
agency said it faces "dramatic" funding gaps, especially for its operations in 
sub-Saharan Africa. "Slavery and other such egregious abuses of human rights have 
no place in the 21st century," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
    Since 2015,the IOM has repatriated 13,000 people from Libya under a voluntary 
program. But Doyle, the IOM spokesperson, says more needs to be done to stop 
migration at its core, particularly from tech companies who own online platforms 
where traffickers can falsely lure people into paying smugglers.
    "They're being completely misled into thinking that's a happy future for them 
and being misled thorough social media," he tells TIME.In November,the foreign
ministry of Rwanda said it would extend asylum to 30,000 mainly sub-Saharan 
Africans stuck in Libya. "Given our own history " we cannot remain  silent when 
human beings are being mistreated and auctioned off like cattle," the foreign 
ministry said.
   U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley condemned the abuses, saying: "To see 
the pictures of these men being treated like cattle, and to hear the auctioneer 
describe them as, quote, "big strong boys for farm work," should shock the
conscience of us all."
   "There are few greater violations of human rights and human dignity than this."
Funny when it was the Americans and Europeans who created this monster.

THE WAR IN SYRIA IS OVER (FOR NOW)

  On December 7 the Russian General Staff has declared the liberation of Syria 
from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS),stating that all territories previously 
under terrorist control were liberated in the final push by the Syrian Army.
   "All terrorist units of ISIS on Syrian soil have been destroyed,and the 
territory is liberated," Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Valery Gerasimov said.
"Therefore, as of today, there's no territory controlled by ISIS in Syria,"
he added. Gerasimov made the announcement during an annual briefing for foreign 
military attack's.
       After being briefed on the successful military operation on both banks of 
the Euphrates River in Syria by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, President 
Vladimir Putin said that the political process and organization of the Syrian 
people's congress in Sochi,agreed upon by Russia,Iran and Turkey last month,must 
now become the focus.Among other goals,Putin named the drafting of a new 
constitution and eventually,parliamentary and presidential elections.
   "Naturally,there might be some spots of resistance,but the military work has 
been largely completed in the area and at the time.Completed with a full victory,
I repeat,with a victory and defeat of the terrorists," Russian leader said.
    The peace process,however,will be "a very big and lengthy job," Putin
cautioned.For this to happen though,the bloodshed in Syria must stop completely, 
he said. Securing the recent achievements and reinforcing the fragile de-escalation
zones should be the first steps to that end, Russia's president added.
    Russia began providing support to Syria following an official request from 
Damascus in 2015 to prevent the terrorists from overrunning the country completely.
Russia's help allowed the Syrian Arab Army to turn the tide and liberate large 
areas of the country previously occupied by the jihadists.Smashing the blockade 
of Deir ez-Zor,an IS stronghold in eastern Syria,represented a turning point in 
this year's campaign against the terrorists,ultimately leading to their demise.
    If you watch the Main Stream Media you will see them congratulating the USA 
on defeating ISIL in Syria with no credit given to Russia. They will also not tell 
you that the USA entered Syria without being granted permission from the
government of Syria which is a violation of international law. The MSM will not 
tell you that he USA in Syria were supporting Al-Nusra terrorists the same group
who used to be called Al-Qaeda the same group that was responsible for the
September 11 attacks.

RESIDENTS OF OKINAWA WANT U.S. SOLDIERS OUT NOW


    The residents of the Japanese island of Okinawa want the US Military out. 
For decades US soldiers have wreaked havoc on the island by committing such crimes 
as murder and rape.
    On December 4th the governor of Okinawa urged Tokyo to amend the pact on the 
status of the US troops in Japan to combat the "significant anxiety" the locals 
are enduring because of the rowdy Americans' presence. 
   The governor of the southern prefecture,Takeshi Onaga,demanded that the central 
government makes "drastic" and"fundamental" changes in the Japan-US Status of 
Forces Agreement (SOFA) during his meeting with Foreign Minister Taro Kono on 
Saturday,according to Japanese media. 
   "People in Okinawa have been shocked and are enduring significant anxiety," 
Onaga said.The meeting followed a decision by the Naha District Court in the 
prefecture's main city to sentence a former US marine to life imprisonment for 
raping and killing a Japanese woman.The case provoked public outrage and triggered 
one of the massive anti-US protests on the island,with at least 50,000 people 
gathering to decry heavy US military presence. 
   In November,a 61-year-old woman was killed in a car accident after a member of 
the US Marine Corps crashed their truck into a light vehicle she was driving. 
His blood alcohol level was revealed to be three times over the legal limit.The 
fatal crash prompted an alcohol ban for all members of the US military stationed 
in Okinawa.The governor, however, protested: "We cannot contain our indignation,
"saying that the local government had repeatedly urged the US forces to take 
preventive measures. 
    The accord with Washington is "unfair," being overly protective of servicemen 
and civil workers of the US military bases,the governor stressed during his 
meeting with Kono.Onaga's calls have only been met with promises that Tokyo will
try to alleviate the burden borne by the Okinawa residents. "We want to improve 
what we can improve,"Asahi Shimbun quoted Taro Kono's response. 
    Earlier in the day,however,the foreign minister requested the top commander of
US military forces in Okinawa, Lt. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson,to take preventive 
steps given the latest incidents. 
    "We understand our obligation to the community and we can do that better as 
well.We will continue to look at our behavior, our actions and how we represent 
our country," Nicholson said. 
   Okinawa is the home to several major US military bases,and 70 percent of land 
exclusively used by the US military in Japan is located in this prefecture. 
   About 50,000 US military personnel are stationed there,according to Reuters.

OBITUARIES-WHO DIED IN 2017
JANUARY
10 Buddy Greco,American singer,actor (The Girl Who Knew Too Much) and pianist-age 90
11 Tommy Allsup,American rockabilly and swing guitarist,complications from 
hernia surgery-age 85
11 Christopher Chubasco Wilkins,American murderer,execution by lethal injection.-age 48
14 John Boudreaux,American drummer.-age 80
14 Barry Cassin,Irish actor (Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog,The Count of 
Monte Cristo,Byzantium).- age 92
16 Steve Wright,American bass guitarist (The Greg Kihn Band),heart attack.-age 66
17 Philip Bond,British actor (Doctor Who,The Onedin Line).-age 82
20 Joey Powers,American singer-songwriter.-age 82
23 Bobby Freeman,American singer and songwriter ("Do You Want to Dance"),heart 
attack.-age 76
25 Mary Tyler Moore,American actress (The Dick Van Dyke Show,The Mary Tyler Moore Show,
Ordinary People),7-time Emmy winner,cardiopulmonary arrest.-age 80
26 Mike Connors,American actor (Mannix,The Ten Commandments,Tightrope!),leukemia.-age 91
26 Barbara Hale,American actress (Perry Mason, Airport),complications from COPD-age 94
31 Frank Pellegrino,American actor (Goodfellas,The Sopranos) and restaurateur 
(Rao's),lung cancer.-age 72
31 John Wetton,British singer-songwriter ("Only Time Will Tell","Heat of the 
Moment") and bass guitarist (Asia,King Crimson),colorectal cancer-age 67

FEBRUARY
01 Robert Dahlqvist,Swedish rock singer and guitarist (The Hellacopters,Dundertoget).-age 40
06 Inge Keller,German actress (The Last Year, Aimre & Jaguar,Lola and Billy the Kid-age 93
11 Howard Leeds,Canadian-born American television producer and writer (The Brady 
Bunch,Silver Spoons,Diff'rent Strokes).age-97
12 Sara Coward,British actress (The Archers),breast cancer-age 69
12 Damian,British pop singer,cancer-age 52
12 Al Jarreau,American jazz and R&B singer ("Moonlighting","Since I Fell for You",
"We Are the World"),seven-time Grammy winner,respiratory failure-age 76
12 Alice Ludes,American singer, small illness-age 104
18 Omar Abdel-Rahman,Egyptian Muslim leader and convicted terrorist.-age 78
21 Joy Hruby,Australian actress (Brides of Christ) and television presenter.-age 89
25 Bill Paxton,American actor (Apollo 13,Titanic,Big Love),stroke as a complication
from heart surgery.-age 61
26 Joseph Wapner,American judge (Los Angeles County Superior Court) and 
television personality (The People's Court,),respiratory failure.-age 97
27 John Harlan,American radio and television personality (Password,Name That 
Tune)-age 91
28 Ric Marlow,American songwriter ("A Taste of Honey") and actor (Bonanza, 
Magnum,P.I.,Hawaii Five-O).-age 91

MARCH
03 Jim Fuller,American guitarist (The Surfaris).-age 69
03 Miriam Colon,Puerto Rican-American actress (Scarface,Goal!,All the Pretty 
Horses),pulmonary infection.-age 80
03 Tommy Page,American singer-songwriter ("I'll Be Your Everything") and music 
industry executive (Reprise Records,Billboard),suicide.-age 46
06 Lars Diedricson,Swedish singer (Snowstorm), songwriter ("Take Me To Your 
Heaven") and winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1999.-age 55
17 Robert Day,British television and film director (The Green Man,First Man 
Into Space,The Rebel).-age 94
17 Auntie Fee,American Internet personality and actress (Barbershop:The Next Cut),
heart attack.-age 59

18 Chuck Berry,American Hall of Fame guitarist, singer and songwriter 
("Johnny B. Goode","Maybellene","Roll Over Beethoven"),heart attack.-age 90
18 Tony Russel,American actor (Behind the Mask of Zorro,Wild,Wild Planet,War 
of the Planets).-age 91
18 Joe Mafela,South African actor (Zulu,Shout at the Devil,Escape from Angola),
traffic collision.-age 75
19 Jimmy Breslin,American journalist and author (New York Daily News,Newsday),
recipient of the Pulitzer Prize (1986),complications from pneumonia.-age 88
19 John Rogan,Irish actor (The Bill).-age 78
21 Chuck Barris,American television producer,game show creator,host 
(The Gong Show,The Dating Game) and songwriter ("Palisades Park").-age 87
22 Sib Hashian,American drummer (Boston).-age 67
22 Keith Palmer,British police officer,stabbed during 2017 Westminster attack.-age 48
23 Lola Albright,American actress (Champion,Peter Gunn,Lord Love a Duck).-age 92
25 Sheila Bond,American actress (Wish You Were Here,The Marrying Kind,Damn Yankees),
Tony winner (1953).-age 90
27 Chelsea Brown,American-Australian actress (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In,Number 96),
pneumonia-age 74
30 Rosie Hamlin,American singer (Rosie and the Originals)-age 71

APRIL
08 Brian Matthew,English TV and radio presenter (Saturday Club,Thank Your Lucky 
Stars,Sounds of the 60s).-age 88
10 Linda Hopkins,American actress (Purlie, Me and Bessie) and singer ("Shake A
Hand"), Tony winner (1972).-age 92
11 J. Geils,American guitarist (The J. Geils Band).-age 71
15 Aref Lorestani,Iranian actor, heart attack.-age 45
15 Sylvia Moy,American songwriter ("Uptight (Everything's Alright)", "I Was Made To
Love Her", "My Cherie Amour") and record producer-age 78
22 Erin Moran,American actress (Happy Days, Joanie Loves Chachi,Galaxy of Terror),
tonsil cancer.-age 56
27 Peter Spier,Dutch-born American illustrator and children's writer.-age 89

MAY
05 Clive Brooks,British drummer (Egg, The Groundhogs,Pink Floyd).-age 67
05 Quinn O'Hara,Scottish-born American actress (The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini)-age 76
08 Curt Lowens,German-born American actor (Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory,The 
Hindenburg,Angels & Demons) and Holocaust survivor,fall.-age 91
09 Robert Miles,Swiss-born Italian electronic dance musician and record producer
("Children"),cancer.-age 47
09 Michael Parks,American actor (Twin Peaks,From Dusk till Dawn,Kill Bill).-age 77
23 Sir Roger Moore,English actor (The Spy Who Loved Me, Maverick,The Saint),cancer.-age 89
27 Gregg Allman,American Hall of Fame singer-songwriter ("Whipping Post","Midnight
Rider") and musician (The Allman Brothers Band),liver cancer-age 69
	
JUNE
04 Roger Smith,American actor (77 Sunset Strip,Mister Roberts,Auntie Mame),
complications from Parkinson's disease.-age 84
13 Jack Ong,American actor (Next,Leprechaun in the Hood,General Hospital),brain 
tumor.-age 76
16 Stephen Furst,American actor (Babylon 5,Animal House,St. Elsewhere),
complications from diabetes.-age 63
20 Prodigy,American rapper (Mobb Deep),accidental choking.-age 42
22 Jimmy Nalls,American rock guitarist (Sea Level), fall-age 66
22 Paul De Rolf,American actor (The Ten Commandments, The Beverly Hillbillies) and
choreographer (1941),Alzheimer's disease.-age 74
22 Gunter Gabriel,German singer,musician and composer,fall.-age 75
27 Valentin Pimstein,Chilean television producer (Maria la del Barrio,Marimar,
Carrusel),respiratory arrest.-age 91
28 Wally O'Connell,Australian rugby league footballer and coach (Eastern Suburbs,
Manly-Warringah).-age 94
29 Marrion Roe,New Zealand swimmer.-age 82
30 Barry Norman,British film critic and television presenter (Film...).-age 83

JULY
02 Chris Roberts,German singer and actor, lung cancer.-age 73
03 Joe Robinson,British actor (Diamonds Are Forever,The Loneliness of the Long 
Distance Runner,Thor and the Amazon Women).-age 90
04 Carol Lee Scott,English actress (Grotbags).-age 74
05 John Karlsen,New Zealand actor (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure).-age 97
13 Simon Holmes,Australian musician (The Hummingbirds).-age 54
16 Trevor Baxter,British actor (Doctor Who, Maelstrom,Sky Captain And The World
Of Tomorrow) and playwright.-age 84
19 Blaoui Houari,Algerian singer and songwriter.-age 91
25 Barbara Sinatra,American fashion model,showgirl and wife of Frank Sinatra.-age 90
31 Jeanne Moreau,French actress (Elevator to the Gallows,The Lovers,Jules and Jim).-age 89

AUGUST
02 Wanda Chotomska,Polish children's author and screenwriter (Jacek i Agatka)-age 87
03 Ty Hardin,American actor (Bronco,Berserk!, Battle of the Bulge).-age 87
03 Robert Hardy,British actor (All Creatures Great and Small,Harry Potter,Winston
Churchill:The Wilderness Years).-age 91
08 Glen Campbell,American singer ("Rhinestone Cowboy") and actor (True Grit),
Grammy winner (1967,2015),Alzheimer's disease.-age 81
11 Terele Pavez,Spanish actress (Witching & Bitching, La Celestina,The Bar),Goya
winner (2013),stroke.-age 78
13 Joseph Bologna,American actor (Blame It on Rio,My Favorite Year,The Big Bus),
pancreatic cancer.-age 82
14 Andrzej Blumenfeld,Polish actor (The Pianist,Delivery Man,The Witcher).-age 66
19 Dick Gregory,American comedian and civil rights activist,heart failure.-age 84
20 Jerry Lewis,American comedian (Martin and Lewis),actor (The Nutty Professor)
and humanitarian,cardiomyopathy.-age 91
23 Viola Harris,American actress (Deconstructing Harry,The Other Guys,Sex And The 
City 2).-age 91
24 Jay Thomas,American actor (Cheers,Murphy Brown,Love & War) and radio talk show 
host,Emmy winner (1990,1991),cancer.-age 69
25 Sharry Konopski,American model and actress,pneumonia.-age 49

SEPTEMBER
01 Shelley Berman,American comedian and actor (Curb Your Enthusiasm,Meet The 
Fockers),Alzheimer's disease.-age 92
06 Mike Neville,British television presenter (BBC North East and Cumbria,ITV Tyne 
Tees),cancer.-age 80
08 Don Williams,American Hall of Fame country music singer ("Tulsa Time",
"I Believe in You","You're My Best Friend") and songwriter,emphysema.-age 78
13 Frank Vincent,American actor (The Sopranos,Goodfellas,Raging Bull),
complications during heart surgery.-age 80
24 Gisele Casadesus,French actress (My Afternoons with Margueritte).-age 103
25 Bobby Knutt,British actor and comedian (Coronation Street,Benidorm,Emmerdale),
heart attack.-Age 71
26 Gunter Halm,German World War II military officer.-age 95
27 Hugh Hefner,American magazine publisher (Playboy),businessman (Playboy 
Enterprises),cardiac arrest due to septicemia.-age 91
30 Apex,British drum and bass music producer,suicide.-age 36
30 Monty Hall,Canadian-American game show host (Let's Make a Deal),heart failure.-age 96

OCTOBER

02 Tom Petty,American Hall of Fame musician (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,
Traveling Wilburys) and voice actor (King of the Hill),heart attack-age 66
21 Lech Ordon,Polish actor (Letters to Santa).-age 88

24 Fats Domino,American Hall of Fame pianist and singer-songwriter 
("Blueberry Hill", "Ain't That a Shame", "I'm Walkin'").-age 89
30 Daniel Viglietti,Uruguayan folk singer, guitarist, composer and political 
activist.-age 78

NOVEMBER
03 Jiri Kormanik,Czechoslovakian wrestler,Olympic silver medalist (1964).-age 82
07 Hans-Michael Rehberg,German actor (Schindler's List).-age 79
08 Pat Hutchins,British illustrator,author and actress (Rosie and Jim),cancer.-age 75
11 Baard Owe,Norwegian-born Danish actor (The Kingdom), lung cancer.-age 81
13 Alina Janowska,Polish actress,Alzheimer's disease.-age 94
14 Little Mama,African-born chimpanzee (Lion Country Safari),oldest on record,
kidney failure .-age 79
15 Lil Peep,American singer and rapper,drug overdose.-age 21
16 John Gambino,Italian-born American mobster.-age 77
18 Frans Zwartjes (nl),Dutch film director and artist..-age 90
19 Della Reese,American actress (Touched by an Angel, Chico and the Man) and 
singer ("Don't You Know?").-age 86
19 Charles Manson,American criminal (Tate murders),cult leader (Manson Family),
cardiac arrest from colon cancer.-age 83

21 David Cassidy,American pop singer ("Cherish", "How Can I Be Sure") and actor
(The Partridge Family), liver failure-age 67
26 Patrick Bourgeois,Canadian musician (Les B.B.),cancer.-age 54
27 Robert Popwell,American bass guitarist (The Young Rascals,The Crusaders).-age 66
30 Jim Nabors,American actor (Gomer Pyle,U.S.M.C.,The Andy Griffith Show,
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) and singer.-age 87

DECEMBER
03 Patrick Henry,French murderer,lung cancer.-age 64
07 Tommy Horton,British golfer.-age 76
08 Atsutoshi Nishida,Japanese businessman,President of Toshiba (2005-2009), 
heart attack-age 73
09 Heitaro Nakajima,Japanese digital audio pioneer-age 96
11 Charles Robert Jenkins,American soldier,deserted to North Korea.-age 77
12 Pat DiNizio,American singer and musician (The Smithereens).-age 62
13 Warrel Dane,American rock singer (Sanctuary,Nevermore),heart attack.-age 56
13 Martin Ransohoff,American producer (The Beverly Hillbillies,Mister Ed,The 
Cincinnati Kid),co-founder of Filmways.-age 90
13 Rory O'Donoghue,Australian musician and actor (The Aunty Jack Show),suicide.-age 68
14 Yurizan Beltran,American pornographic actress,drug overdose.-age 31
15 Ana Maria Vela Rubio,Spanish supercentenarian,nation's oldest person ever.-age 116
16 Keely Smith,American singer ("That Old Black Magic","I've Got You Under My Skin"),
Grammy winner (1959),heart failure.-age 89
19 Hiep Thi Le,Vietnamese-American actress (Heaven & Earth,Cruel Intentions,
Lakeview Terrace),stomach cancer.- age 46
19 Leo Welch,American blues musician.-- age 85
21 June Rowlands,Canadian politician, Mayor of Toronto (1991-1994)- age 93

SPORTS
 'RUSSIAN 2018 OLYMPIC BAN IS CLEARLY POLITICALLY MOTIVATED'
   Despite IOC's assurances that it's politically neutral,banning Russia from the 
Winter Olympics is precisely a politically motivated decision,says sociology 
professor at Aston University Ellis Cashmore.Other analysts also commented on the 
matter.
    The International Olympic Committee banned the Russian Winter Olympics team 
from competing at the 2018 Games.
    However,individual athletes that can prove they are clean will be allowed to 
participate under a neutral flag and named as 'Olympic Athletes from Russia.'
  Thomas Bach,the President of the International Olympic Committee,assured that 
"the IOC is politically absolutely neutral,and we would not allow to be influenced 
by any kind of political considerations in such sporting matters."
    Ellis Cashmore,professor of sociology at Aston University argues this was 
precisely a politically motivated decision.

    "They said this isn't a political decision.But of course,the world knows that 
     it is exactly that.This has been a controversy that has been clouded in 
     political judgment.It is impossible to separate this particular decision from 
     what is going on in the rest of the world regarding fake news and the alleged
     intervention of Russia into Britain's Brexit vote and even the American 
     presidential election. There is a lot of this kind of stuff swirling around 
     the world at the moment.A lot of it is beyond belief,frankly.But people are 
     accepting some of it.So,I don't think you can disentangle the two things.
     "Let;s remember this is a campaign that has been building for several years
     since 2014 with the airing of these allegations from Sochi on German TV,
     American TV.Remember,the banning in Rio of the Russian track and field team,
     banning the Paralympic team from Russia," he says. "I think the fact that we 
     are talking about the banning the Russian team,the Russian flag,the 
      Russian anthem,shows that this is really directed against Russia per se."

 Former US diplomat Jim Jatras said "It is not a question of clean athletes and 
athletes that are engaged in doping,which we know is a widespread practice.There 
was the 2011 WADA report that said between 29 and 45 percent of athletes worldwide 
were engaged in doping and this is a problem in many other countries,but Russia 
has been singled out for the special treatment, particularly against its national 
symbols, and I think it is indeed quite political," 
     "I can't think of a time when a country has been banned for that even when 
     it was clear that it was done with higher authority from the government. 
     I have to say, this looks like totally about politics.It is not about cleaning
     up the Olympic sport," he added."The banning of the whole country's team is 
     excessive.They could have solved the problem by putting extra tests on 
     Russian athletes if they were suspicious," he continued.
           Alan Moore,the host of Moscow's Capital FM Sports,suggests the IOC has 
     found a profitable strategy in demonizing Russia.There is no fair play in 
     sport.At this level,the simple truth is that in order to compete at the 
     highest level,you have to do something to stay there.When you have a very 
     well-paying job at the level of Mr. Bach "they need to do it to stay on top.
     And that is what they are doing. Russia is very useful to keep this," he said.
           "It is very unfair on Russia.There is,of course,a political drive 
     behind this.The question that I have in my mind is: okay.Russia is banned, 
     what next? Who else will they go after?" it would be nobody because they 
     would want to keep beating Russia, keep beating the drum and say Russia is 
     bad."But there are a lot of bad guys everywhere"It won't change... "


       As of now President Putin has let the athletes,who have trained all their 
lives for the Olympics,decide if they wanted to go.It is no surprise,even though 
they can not fly the Russian flag or have the Russian national anthem played upon 
winning a medal,the athletes still want to participate in the 2018 Olympics.
So Putin has granted them their wish.But was this a good move? Russia now by 
appeasing the IOC (or USA who is more than likely behind this) will only encourage 
more aggression to continue from the IOC.Allowing the athletes to participate in 
the Olympics in this manner can be interpreted as an admission of guilt.Mark my 
words the IOC will continue their attacks on Russia in the 2018.2020 and 2022 
Olympics.

          SUPER BOWL LI (51)

    Super Bowl LI was an American football game played at NRG Stadium in Houston,
Texas, on Sunday,February 5, 2017,to determine the champion of the National 
Football League (NFL) for the 2016 season.The American Football Conference (AFC) 
champion New England Patriots,after trailing by as many as 25 points (28-3) during 
the third quarter,defeated the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Atlanta 
Falcons, 34-28 in overtime.The Patriots' 25-point comeback is the largest comeback 
in Super Bowl history,and Super Bowl LI was the first to be decided in overtime.
   The Patriots' victory was their fifth, moving them into a three-way tie with 
the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers for second place on the all-time 
Super Bowl wins list, trailing only the Pittsburgh Steelers who have six victories.
New England,after finishing the regular season with a league-best 14-2 record,
advanced to their record-setting ninth Super Bowl appearance,their second in three 
years,and their seventh under the leadership of head coach Bill Belichick and 
quarterback Tom Brady.The Falcons entered the game after completing an 11-5 
regular season record,and were trying to win their first Super Bowl title,having 
lost their only previous appearance in Super Bowl XXXIII.
   After a scoreless first quarter,Atlanta scored 21 points before New England made
a field goal with two seconds left in the second quarter,to make it a 21-3 halftime
lead.The Falcons then increased their lead to 28-3 midway through the third 
quarter,with quarterback Matt Ryan completing his second touchdown pass.The 
Patriots then scored 25 unanswered points to tie the game,28-28,with 57 seconds 
left in regulation.New England won the overtime coin toss, received the kickoff 
and drove 75 yards to win with a 2-yard touchdown run by running back James White. 
When the game ended, more than 30 team and individual Super Bowl records had been 
either broken or matched.White's 14 receptions and his 20 points scored (off of 3 
touchdowns and a two-point conversion) were among these broken records.New England 
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady,who also broke single-game Super Bowl records with 
43 completed passes, 62 pass attempts, and 466 passing yards, was named Super Bowl 
MVP for a record fourth time.
    Fox's broadcast of the game averaged around 111.3 million viewers, slightly 
down from the 111.9 million viewers of previous year's Super Bowl.
 Average TV viewership for the halftime show,headlined by Lady Gaga,was higher at 
117.5 million.On the following day a number of media outlets immediately hailed 
the game as the greatest Super Bowl of all time.

2017 BASEBALL WORLD SERIES

   The 2017 Baseball World Series was the championship series of Major League 
Baseball's (MLB) 2017 season.The 113th edition of the World Series,it was played
between October 24 and November 1.The series was a best-of-seven playoff between 
the National League (NL) champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the American League (AL)
champion Houston Astros.It was sponsored by the internet television service YouTube
TV and officially known as the World Series presented by YouTube TV.
   The Astros defeated the Dodgers,four games to three,to win their first World 
Series in franchise history and the first team from Texas to do so.Both teams set 
a World Series record with a combined total of 25 home runs throughout the entire 
series,including a team record 15 home runs by the Astros,and hit a combined total 
of eight home runs in Game 2 to set the single game World Series mark.Houston 
outfielder George Springer was named as the World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP)
after hitting five home runs in the series to tie a World Series record with Reggie
Jackson in 1977 and Dodgers' 2017 World Series representative Chase Utley in 2009 
when he played for the Philadelphia Phillies.
    This was the first World Series in which home-field advantage was decided by 
the regular season record of pennant winners.From 1903 to 2002,home-field 
advantage alternated between the AL and NL,and from 2003 to 2016,it was determined
by results from that season's All-Star Game,when it was awarded to the team from 
the winning league.With 104 regular season wins,the Dodgers earned home-field 
advantage over the Astros,who had 101 regular season wins.The series was played in 
a 2-3-2 format,with the Dodgers hosting Games 1,2,6, and 7;and the Astros hosting 
Games 3,4, and 5.

 2017 NBA FINALS

    The 2017 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball 
Association (NBA)'s 2016-17 season and conclusion of the season's playoffs.The 
Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors defeated the defending NBA 
champion and Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers 4 games to 1.These 
Finals was the first time in NBA history the same two teams had met for a third 
consecutive year.The Cavaliers sought to repeat as champions after winning the 
championship in 2016,while the Warriors won the first meeting in 2015.Golden State 
earned home court advantage with a 2016-17 regular season record of 67-15,while 
Cleveland finished the regular season with a 51-31 record.The Warriors entered the 
2017 Finals after becoming the first team in NBA playoff history to start 12-0,
while the Cavaliers entered the 2017 Finals with a 12-1 record during the first 
three rounds of the postseason.The Warriors' 15-0 start in the playoffs is the 
most consecutive postseason wins in NBA history and their 
16-1 record is the best winning percentage (.941) in NBA Playoff history.

2017 AUSTRALIAN (AFL) GRAND FINAL

    The 2017 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested 
between the Adelaide Crows and the Richmond Tigers,held at the Melbourne Cricket 
Ground on September 30,2017.It was the 121st annual grand final of the Australian 
Football League (formerly the Victorian Football League),staged to determine the 
premiers for the 2017 AFL season. Richmond defeated Adelaide by 48 points,marking 
the club's eleventh premiership and first since 1980.Richmond's Dustin Martin won 
the Norm Smith Medal as the best player on the ground. The match was attended by 
100,021 people,the largest crowd since the 1986 Grand Final.

ENTERTAINMENT 

"SHAPE OF YOU BY ED SHEERAN" IS THE #1 SONG OF 2017
  This year this part of the year-end review is very easy for me. On my website I 
follow the music charts of five countries-US,UK,Canada,Australia and New Zealand.
Sometimes there may be a different #1 song of the year for all five countries.So 
then I would have to address five different songs.This year though all five 
countries have the same number one song-"Shape Of You" by "Ed Sheeran".
    "Shape of You" is a song by British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran.It was 
released as a digital download on January 6,2017 as one of the double lead singles
from his third studio album ?(Divide) (2017),along with "Castle on the Hill".
    The dancehall-infused pop song was written and produced by Ed Sheeran and 
Steve Mac,along with additional writing contributions from Johnny McDaid,Kandi 
Burruss,Tameka "Tiny" Cottle, and Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs.
   "Shape of You" peaked at number-one on the singles charts of 44 countries,
including the US Billboard Hot 100 (later becoming the best performing song of 2017),
as well as the UK, Australian,Canadian and New Zealand singles charts.It has stayed
at number one for a record-tying 16 consecutive weeks on the Canadian Hot 100,as 
well as 14 non-consecutive weeks on the UK Singles Chart,and 12 non-consecutive 
weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.On September 21,2017 it became the most streamed 
song on "Spotify", with over 1.32 billion streams.

DESPACITO BY LUIS FONSI,DADDY YANKEE AND JUSTIN BEIBER

  Although "Despacito" was not #1 for 2017 in any of the five countries (US,UK,
Canada,Australia and New Zealand) where I monitor the charts it can't be overlooked.
In the USA it was the #2 song of the year for 2017 spending 16 weeks at #1 on the 
US Billboard Hot 100.Since 1940 no song has spent more time at #1 on the major
Billboard single charts."One Sweet Day" by "Mariah Carey and Boyz/Men" (1995-96) is
the only other song to spend 16 weeks at #1. 
  "Despacito" (American Spanish: [despa'sito]; English: "Slowly") is a single by 
Puerto Rican singer "Luis Fonsi" featuring Puerto Rican rapper "Daddy Yankee" from 
Fonsi's upcoming studio album.On January 12,2017,Universal Music Latin released 
"Despacito" and its music video, which shows both artists performing the song in 
La Perla neighborhood of Old San Juan,Puerto Rico and the local bar La Factoria.The
song was written by Fonsi,Erika Ender and Daddy Yankee and was produced by Andres
Torres and Mauricio Rengifo.A remix version featuring Canadian singer Justin Bieber
was released on April 17, 2017,which helped to improve the song's chart performance
in numerous countries,particularly in the English-speaking world.
    It is a reggaeton-pop song composed in common time with lyrics about having a 
sexual relationship,performed in a smooth and romantic way.Commercially,the song 
topped the charts of 47 countries and reached the top 10 of ten others,making it
both Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's most successful single to date.It became the first 
song primarily in Spanish to top the Billboard Hot 100 since "Macarena" (Bayside 
Boys Mix) in 1996.On August 4, 2017,the official music video for "Despacito" became
the most viewed YouTube video of all time after receiving its 3 billionth view,
making it the first video on the site to reach the milestone.It later became the 
first YouTube video to hit 4 billion views on October 11,2017.
   Upon its release, "Despacito" received generally favorable reviews from music 
critics,who praised the fusion between Latin and urban rhythms,the catchiness of 
the song and its text painting.It has received Latin Grammy Awards for Record of 
the Year,Song of the Year, Best Urban Fusion/Performance and Best Short Form Music
Video at the 18th Annual Latin Grammy Awards. In 2017,"Despacito" was ranked the 
fifth best Latin song of all time by Billboard and was positioned within the top 
ten songs of the year by Time,Billboard and Rolling Stone.

PLAYMATE OF THE YEAR OR "SMASH HIT OF THE YEAR"

  From my first year-end review in 2004 to 2015 I always posted "Playboy's Playmate
Of The Year".Then in 2016 Playboy discontinued publishing nude photos of the 
playmates.Further in 2017 Hugh Hefner died.So I picked up the slack.In 2010 I 
started posting playmates on my website.In 2011 I had what you call my first 
"SMASH HIT OF THE YEAR" (same thing as "PLAYMATE OF THE YEAR"). The "SMASH HIT OF 
THE YEAR" was chosen in response to votes casted by viewers.So in 2016 when Playboy
discontinued nude playmates I posted my "SMASH HIT OF THE YEAR" in my year-end 
review.So I am doing the same in 2017. You can view the 2017 "SMASH HIT OF THE 
YEAR" on my website 
at:http://hitsofalldecades.com/chart_hits/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3682&Itemid=57

Above is a photo of MAYU NOZOMI the 2017 "SMASH HIT OF THE YEAR", If you go to the
above URL you can find more revealing photos of her.
Below you will also find her biographical data reproduced from my website.

MAYU NOZOMI
 Born:October,5,1989 in Tokyo
 Blood Type : A
 Breast : 84 cm
 Waist : 60 cm
 Hips : 85 cm
 Height : 153 cm
Mayu Nozomi was born on October 5,1989 in Tokyo,Japan.She debuted as a junior 
model with the stage name Hikari.In April and July 2009,she appeared in two 
gravure videos,Kawaii and Hope!.In November of the same year,she made her AV debut
with the video First Impression 45,released by the manufacturer Idea Pocket.
   In January 2010,she debuted as a singer with the album "Nozomi",released by Duo
Entertainment.In November 2010,she made her film debut as the lead character of 
the V-Cinema release "Yankii Joshik "sei 4:Chiba Saiky" Densetsu","Delinquent High 
School Girl 4".In 2012,she was involved in the music project "Kiss",a J-pop group 
consisting of her,Aino Kishi and Jessica Kizaki.Their debut album was 
"Touch My S.P.O.T"..Nozomi also appeared on the "Free-Shobo Akiba Festival",a 
photo application for "Android",together with other five popular gravure models.
  When the major Japanese adult video distributor DMM held a poll of its customers 
in 2012 to select the 100 all-time best AV actresses to celebrate the 30th 
anniversary of adult videos in Japan,Nozomi was listed as number 34.At the 2014 AV 
Open ceremony, Nozomi's video,BEACHY VENUS,for the Idea Pocket studio co-starring 
Airi Kijima and Aino Kishi won the Super Heavyweight Class Third Place award.

 CLOSING    
   So much for the world in 2017.As for my world I started 2017 living in Chianyai,
Thailand and I will end 2017 living in Nakhon Sri Thammarat province in Thailand.
   In February I turned 64.So you may want to hear the 1967 Beatles' song 
"When I'm 64". Go to:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAzaOZfgf0M.
   I spent every day of 2017 except for 4 on Thailand soil and the other four days 
sorting out my visa in Malaysia.I am now retired and still live in a house all 
alone.All of my 20,000 Cds,records and tapes,Plus my huge Playboy collection are 
with me in my house.I will probably (unless I am kidnapped by the CIA) be in 
Thailand for almost all of 2018.I now have not been on US soil in over (8) years 
(I left the USA on September 15th, 2009).If things go as I would like them to 
there is a good chance I may never see the USA again.I don't need the USA's war 
machine,I don't need their ghetto scenes.
   In 2017 I increased the size of my website.I now have approximately 4200 files 
on my website (see:www.hitsofalldecades.com).In October of 2018 I plan to begin 
compiling the top 6500 of all time (1954-2019) which will be unveiled in July of 
2019.My projections are to have 5000 files on my website by January 15,2020.It may 
take me about five years for me to get my website up to snuff.So it may be at 
least nine years before I begin writing that book about my life which I have been 
wanting to do for the past 10 years.Also in about five years I am hoping to have 
my own internet show.We will see.I take life one day at a time.I am hoping for this
book and my internet show will be my bonanza.As Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones 
said back in 1967 "Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind". 
   It was a pleasure to have all of you being part of my life this year.Anyway,
that is my year-end review for 2017.I hope you all had a cool year too and that 
you have lots of dreams to aim for in the next 12 months or so.
   Remember every second of your life you spend thinking of bad and negative 
thoughts it is one second less your are spending thinking of good and positive 
thoughts and you don't get that one second back.So even if life does not deal you 
the cards you wanted just remember to keep on dancing and enjoying the party.Have 
a fantastic Xmas or whatever holiday you celebrate and I will e-mail you all 
individually when the time frame is not so narrow!! It's been great to have you 
all in my year and my life!!!!

 

         Joyeaux Noel,Feliz Navidad,Frohliches Weihnachten,Merry Xmas  et la prochain