Intrepid Report: Week of September 19, 2016: Western media credibility in free fall collapse, NYT despicably blames Russia for Monday’s Syria humanitarian convoy attack carried out by US-supported terrorists, TTIP 2.0? New leak exposes threats of lesser-known TISA trade deal,

Intrepid Report Newsletter

Monday Central Bank Digital Currencies: A revolution in banking? By Ellen Brown Several central banks, including the Bank of England, the People’s Bank of China, the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve, are exploring the concept of issuing their own digital currencies, using the blockchain technology developed for Bitcoin. Skeptical commentators suspect that their primary goal is to eliminate cash, setting us up for negative interest rates (we pay the bank to hold our deposits rather than the reverse). Western media credibility in free fall collapse By Paul Craig Roberts The latest from the Gallup Poll is that only 32% of Americans trust the print and TV media to tell the truth. Deplorables, delusionals and demagogues united by a flawed foreign policy By Ben Tanosborn If you are an alien, terrestrial or extraterrestrial, looking at our nation these days, you would be scratching your head trying to figure out why our country is known as the USA and not the DPA (Disunited Peoples of America). Only thing that appears to unite us—not all but most—is the love of empire and pride in a corporate-military war machine that mercilessly sucks a great part of our economic, intellectual and moral resources; truly impoverishing our people and making Americans friends of some but enemies of most people around the world. The Supreme Court is on the ballot for 2016 Trump’s courtroom contenders could seriously jeopardize women’s and civil rights. By Marge Baker When voters go to the polls this November, they won’t just be choosing the next president, they’ll also be deciding the direction of the Supreme Court. The 24/7 sneeze factor By Walter Brasch Hillary Clinton is recovering from a mild case of pneumonia. However, shortly after she collapsed at Ground Zero while part of the 15th annual memorial of 9/11, her campaign staff said she was just exhausted and suffered heat exhaustion. It took a couple of days for her to reveal the extent of her medical issue. Tuesday The Russians did it! By Dave Alpert The anti-Russian craze in the U.S. is not a new phenomena. It began in 1917 when the Russian people dismantled the oppressive Czarist government and eventually replaced it with a Bolshevik (Communist) government. Our religion of capitalism and war, and how it all began By Jack Balkwill It has long been my belief that the modern world is cursed by religions of war, in part because we no longer have sensible gods like the ancient P’an Chin-lien who was the Chinese goddess of prostitutes. Why and how I talk about 9/11 By Emanuel E. Garcia, MD In my darker moments I sometimes wonder what’s worse: our age of an endless ‘war on terror’ ushered in by the events of September 11, 2001, or the fact that for the rest of my life I will be subjected to yearly anniversary commemorations of those events, replete with jingoistic absurdities. Ed Norton occupies the world By Philip A Farruggio Anyone who ever saw The Honeymooners episode from the mid 1950s: The Man From Space, check out what our soldiers are wearing while occupying countries. They resemble Ed Norton in his sewer worker’s uniform, who resembled some sort of man from outer space. Either way, the sight of our soldiers breaking into the homes of occupied Iraqis or Afghans, with 20 pounds of equipment and those gadgets on their heads, is really disheartening. I don’t think that Orwell, in his wildest dreams, could have created such a vision of a police state gone mad. Obscured American: Amanda the ex-nurse By Linh Dinh With huge tax breaks, Camden has lured several companies to this wrecked city, so a small chunk of downtown is getting spruced up. Shirtless or in wife beaters, tattooed junkies still lurk around the Walter Rand Transportation Center, but the Third-World clothing stands have been shooed from the shadow of City Hall. Crown Chicken has moved into a less squalid space, and Dunkin’ Donuts has gotten a facelift. A yuppyish-looking bar has opened on Martin Luther King. Wednesday Tension on the Korean Peninsula: US Empire is the real enemy of both Koreas By Joachim Hagopian Warring hotspots all over the world are flaring up in 2016 in what amounts to preparation for World War III between the military forces of the US-led Western Empire against the forces of the Eastern axis led by Russia and China, joined by Iran and North Korea. Let’s be clear—the globalists are the puppet masters behind the Western forces intentionally provoking catastrophic world war. CIA, UNICEF and genocide in Somalia By Thomas C. Mountain UNICEF oversaw the starvation deaths of at least 250,000 Somalis, mainly children, during the last “Great Horn of Africa Drought” and famine of 2010–2012 (at the time the worst in 60 years) all the while being led by Anthony “Tony” Lake, former national security advisor to President Bill Clinton and failed nominee to head the CIA (nomination withdrawn following corruption reports). Imperium Americana’s regional warlords march to their own drum beats By Wayne Madsen Not since the days of the Roman Empire have regional warlords commanded so much authority to craft their own military and diplomatic policies apart from the central government. The United States calls its warlords “combatant commanders” and the title is not misleading. These combatant commanders are always looking for new wars and conflicts, all of which are in the personal interests of them and their top military echelons, but certainly not in the general interest of the American people. There’s no debate The candidates and the media have thoroughly corrupted the presidential debates. Our democracy deserves better. There's still time for a change. By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship Let’s call the whole thing off. Russia has no partners in the West By Paul Craig Roberts The Russian government is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The Russian government keeps making agreements with Washington, and Washington keeps breaking them. Thursday NYT despicably blames Russia for Monday’s Syria humanitarian convoy attack carried out by US-supported terrorists By Stephen Lendman It’s a good time to repeat what I’ve said before. All the news The New York Times claims fit to print isn’t fit to read. Will Russia surrender? By Paul Craig Roberts The Russian government’s sincere and diligent effort to prevent chaos in Syria and additional massive refugee flow into Europe, all the while avoiding conflict with Washington and its vassals, has been brought to an end by Washington’s intentional attack on a known Syrian army position, thus wrecking the cease fire agreement that Russia sacrificed so much to achieve. Western powers back the wrong horse in Libya By Linda S. Heard Say what you will about Libya so-called ‘renegade general,’ Khalifa Haftar, he’s a patriot who’s been effective in battling Islamist radicals. Just days ago, his ‘Libyan National Army’ forces have bloodlessly persuaded armed groups to hand over control of the country’s idle coastal oil terminals which were immediately handed to the National Oil Corporation (NOC). Oil tankers have docked at two of the ports for the first time in three years and the NOC believes exports will be tripled by year’s end. Wards of the Nanny State: Protecting America’s children from police state goons, bureaucratic idiots and mercenary creeps By John W. Whitehead It’s not easy being a parent in the American police state. 5 ways you are subsidizing Big Meat without knowing it Taxpayers are funding the slaughter of songbirds, hideous experiments on farm animals, and ad campaigns to increase Big Meat's profits. By Martha Rosenberg Many people think of the USDA as a kind of FDA for farm products—dedicated to protecting the public’s health against sloppy or even sleazy practices. But actually the USDA, created when America was agrarian, primarily serves rural America and food producers not consumers. Its mission is “helping rural America to thrive; to promote agriculture production that better nourishes Americans while also helping feed others throughout the world; and to preserve our Nation’s natural resources through conservation, restored forests, improved watersheds, and healthy private working lands.” Key word private. Friday The anatomy of the US assault on Syria’s peace process and war with Russia By Joachim Hagopian Events in Syria over this last week have thoroughly shattered the Russian-US ceasefire agreement reached in Vienna on September 9 between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. USAID or USCIA? By Thomas C. Mountain The US Agency for International Development (USAID) was created by Pax Americana to provide a cover for CIA agents under the pretext of helping the 3rd World. US Imperialism has to do some good or its potential targets would not open their doors to intelligence agents posing as do-gooders, so USAID was created. TTIP 2.0? New leak exposes threats of lesser-known TISA trade deal 'The deal, a spiritual and practical sibling of the much-maligned TTIP and TPP free trade agreements, is designed to drive deregulation across the vast global services sector' By Nika Knight Greenpeace Netherlands exposed the threats to democracy and climate action contained within the little-known Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) on Tuesday with new leaks divulging several chapters of the clandestine global trade agreement. Honor Aylan Kurdi by ending the war in Syria By Ramzy Baroud “A photograph, no matter how emotionally wrenching, can only do so much,” wrote Paul Slovic and Nicole Smith Dahmen in QZ.com. Goodbye, and good riddance! By Linda S. Heard It’s a pity President Barack Obama’s pivot away from the Middle East failed to manifest. Anywhere but here! Despite his sincere-sounding reach out to the Arab world during his early days of presidency when he pledged his commitment to work for a Palestinian state and facilitate an atmosphere of mutual respect, wherever his hand has touched is worse off now than ever before.