DECEMBER 2016

ASSANGE.

My reading of the stars makes me suspect that the Donald's "machine" has taken steps to help first amendment victim Julian get off the US prosecutor's hit list.

First by having Julian clean up the act with Sweden. (That "interview" by prosecutors didn't just "happen").

Then Julian released a statement following the interview by Swedish prosecutors.  In the statement he presented evidence that the alleged "rape victims" were still texting him after the rape, and showing that the "rape" was consensual.

The Hillary forces are still looking for a bunny to blame.  One prime target is Julian,   The Washington Post (9/Dec) printed a story that Osama has instructed the CIA to release a report that Assange's informants about DNC letters were "friends" with Russia.  The Washington Post later printed a correction to exactly that allegation, calling it "Fake News"..

No prize for guessing which story is getting most links.

Expect more stages in the cleanup.  Possibilities include:

• The EU report will perhaps be "considered" by the UK parliament, and his crime of breaking bail "forgiven".
• Sweden will drop charges.
• US will publish a conclusion that Julian is no longer a "person of interest".

And hopefully Julian will be out and free within the next couple of months.

TORTURE.

Waterboarding is so a thing of the 20th Century.

The tools available to an interrogator have advanced.  They include voice analysis, AI analysis of facial movement and tone, MRI, EEG....

And probably a whole lot  of other stuff. But it is all a secret of the interrogator. Because anticipation is a part of the arsenal.

The main problem is, if the subject does not talk, interrogation is harder.

Not talking is not a defence.  Everything just has to be phrased as a "Yes" or "No" question.  Responses will be detected.

Al-Maidah, Verse 51. Koran .

Jakarta's Christian ethnic Chinese Governor has been accused of blasphemy because he claimed that the Koran reference above was being misinterpreted by those religious leaders who said it prohibited non Muslims from governing Muslims.

Well it looked fairly clear to me.  The word "Koran" means recitals.  Mohammed would go into the desert, God would talk to him, he would come back and "recite" what God had told him.  Those collected works are called "The Koran".  So if it's in the Koran God said it, and so it's "God's Truth".

Here is a typical translation:

Muslims cannot take people of other religions as friends, protectors, etc.  Seems pretty clear.  Can't vote for them if there is a Muslim standing.  Sorry Basuki, but it looks as though you might be guilty.

ALEPPO.

For a thousand years before WW1 there were two superpowers in West Asia.  Centred in what we now call Turkey and Iran.

Those two peoples had loathed each other since the battle of Kabalah 680AD.  Which battle differentiated Shia from Sunni.

The Saudi have entered the fray. They are mostly Sunni, and mostly aligned with the Turks.  The Iranians are with Assad in Syria, with Russia added in.

Obama is mixed, fence sitting, between Iranians and Saudi.

Saudi money affects the Western media, so our narrative is distorted.  The story we hear is Assad murdering Women and Children. Unconfirmed,

The Russians say that is a story promulgated by ISIS.  They want the last pocket in Aleppo to surrender.  They say they are rescuing the victims of ISIS.

But the Saudi/AlJazeera publicity machine won.  The Russians caved in and let the ISIS fighters out of Aleppo.  Best to cut their propaganda losses.

OBEID.

Jailed for 5 years for "misconduct in public office".

Obeid is a Lebanese immigrant who got VERY rich during his decades long stint in government.

The penalty for rorting the government should be to lose it ALL, including anything handed over to relatives.

According to Robert Graves in "I, Claudius", in Caesars time that is what they did.  Except if the senator suicided, his family got to keep the wealth.

NAPLAN.

Our children are performing NAPLAN tests less well than earlier generations.  Perhaps it is because our teachers are required to spend so much time giving what could best be described as "outside STEM" instruction to our children.

Back 20 years ago it was the health "anti-smoking" morality that they brought home.  There was little parental dissension to that initiative.

Now teachers seemingly are required to spend much time "grooming" them for the LGBTI gender options available (now numbering 37 according to Tinder).

Or spend time learning biased or false information about refugees.

In my day, a child's moral education was a parental responsibility.  Schools concentrated on "the three Rs" (or RRR, now known as STEM).  And the teaching method was not pure"discovery learning", which admittedly works well in some cases, but not so much for "times tables" and similar.  Sure, some people might say nasty stuff like they did to Cindy Crawford.  But the First Amendment is the most important freedom in democracy.  And the first right that is blocked in a totalitarian regime.

(The second right blocked in totalitarian regimes is the second amendment.)

I would prefer that my children & grandchildren not be taught "opinions".  Please have our children taught only verifiable FACTS in the RRR tradition.

SECESSION.

One of the important rights of people which is nowhere in the world (except maybe Texas) permitted is the "Right of Secession".  So to put it in terms Hillaryites would understand, DC, NY and California (to name a few) should be allowed a choice to secede and avoid a Trump presidency.  And not have a repeat of the civil war.

Below I have prepared a table of notable secession movements.

SECESSION STATE	Opponent/supporter.	Support	Resist
KURDS (Sunni)	Turkey(Sunni)		xx
	Iran(Shia)		x
	Iraq (Shia)		x
	Syria(Shia)		x
CRIMEA	Ukraine		x
	USA		x
	Russia	x *1
Formosa, HK	China		xx *2
Israel - PLO	Israel	x *3
	PLO	x
	USA	x
	UN	x
New Guinea	Indonesia		x
Syrians (Sunni)	Syrians (Shia)		x
	Iran		x
	Iraq		x
	USA	x
	Russia		x
	Saudi	x
Yemen(Shia)	Yemen (Sunni)		x
	Saudi		x

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