Jun 10

Today’s News 10th June 2018

  • When, Where, And How Will The Empire Strike Back?

    Authored by James George Jatras via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

    In any analysis of contemporary international politics it pays to be cautiously pessimistic. As the default mode one can generally expect that any way in which things can go wrong to threaten the peace and security of the planet, they will. Anticipation of improvement is a chump’s bet.

    That’s why the analyst’s gut instinct rebels at any indication that things overall may be moving in a positive direction, however haltingly or indirectly. But consider:

    • Europe’s anti-Russia sanctions: American pressure on Europe with respect to trade with Iran, added to Trump’s new tariffs, feeds resentment across Europe, especially in powerful Germany, which especially objects to Washington’s threatening sanctions on companies participating in Nord Stream 2. It may be too soon to guess how soon the EU will pull the plug on anti-Russian sanctions, but there’s something in the air when even the likes of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker can say that “Russia-bashing has to be brought to an end.”  Italy’s voice will be key.

    At the epicenter of each one of these earthshaking developments is one man: Donald Trump.

    It would be inaccurate to say that these are even moves of the US government, of which Trump is only in partial control. With the permanent government – not to mention some of his own appointees – seeking to undermine him at every step, Trump seems to be resorting to the one tool he has at his personal disposal: disruption.

    Let’s remember that, especially in the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, those who voted for Trump wanted something radically different from business as usual. They voted for him because they wanted a bull in a china shop, a wrecking ball, a human hand grenade, a big “FU” to the system.

    Maybe that’s what we got.

    To be sure, none of the foregoing itemized developments is dispositive. But taken together they point to a remarkable confluence of good omens, at least from the point of view of those who wanted to shake up, even shatter, the cozy arrangements that have guided the so-called “liberal global order.”

    But those whose careers and privileges, and in some cases their freedom and even lives, depend on perpetuating that order will not go gentle into that good night. They are getting nervous. This means in particular the elements of the US-UK special services, their Democratic and GOP Never-Trump fellow travelers, the Trump-hating fake news media, and the bureaucratic nonentities in Brussels (not only at the European Commission but at NATO headquarters).

    If past is prologue, the Empire will strike back – hard and dirty.

    One is reminded of the past seven years of war in Syria, where every time the US indicated a willingness to disengage, or when Syrian forces had made major military gains, then – BAM! – a chemical weapons attack immediately and without evidence is attributed to government forces, followed by renewed cries of “Assad is killing his own people! Assad must go!” (This is a ploy that goes back at least the Bosnian war of the 1990s. Every time a negotiated ceasefire seemed to be taking shape, another “Serb mortar attack” on civilians took place, leading to calls for NATO military action.)

    The question is not “if” there will be a provocation, rather it’s one of when, where and how. While it’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future, it’s nonetheless possible to anticipate some possibilities:

    • FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia (June 14 to July 15): Given the huge expense and effort Russia has put into the World Cup as a favorable showcase to the world, it will be a tempting target. Let’s remember that the unconstitutional ouster of Ukraine’s elected government took place as Putin’s attention was presumably distracted by his pride and joy, the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The 2008 attack by Georgia’s then-president, Mikheil Saakashvili, on South Ossetia, was launched while the world’s eyes were focused on the Summer Olympics in Beijing. Both initiatives led to a strong counteraction by Moscow, leading in turn to worsened relations between Russia and the west – including Russia’s suspension from the G8 in 2014. (Though in the fevered imagination of western Russophobes, Putin was the one using the games as a cover, not the other way around.) A provocation could be directed against the FIFA events themselves – perhaps a terrorist attack by ISIS operatives reportedly being ferried out of the Middle East to Russia – or something elsewhere timed to coincide with matches being played all over Russia.

    • Ukraine: Regarding President Petro Poroshenko’s actions, everything must be put into the context of upcoming presidential elections in 2019. Poroshenko has to find a way to get into a runoff, presumably against Yulia Tymoshenko. The most beneficial thing he could do would be somehow to pull a rabbit out of his hat and achieve a peace deal in the Donbas. But chances of that are slim to none, as it would require flexibility from Kiev that Poroshenko can’t afford to show lest he be accused of being a Russian puppet. Conversely, he can up the ante with the Russians and hope the West will line up behind him. Perhaps the recent fake news murder fiasco regarding the still very much alive Arkady Babchenko was to have been one such ploy but it misfired. But there are other options, such as a provocation along the line of control in the Donbas (the newly delivered US Javelin missiles are handy, as is the Dutch MH17 report), maybe a covert attack on the Kerch bridge, as well as other less obvious possibilities.

    • Incident between NATO and Russian forces: NATO forces are stepping up provocative maneuvers on Russia’s doorstep in the Baltic and Black seas – purely to deter Moscow’s aggression, mind you. An incident could occur as any time, either by accident or on purpose. Either way, it would be the hostile Russians’ fault for putting their country so close to our bases and the venues of our military exercises.

    • Assassination: One of Putin’s well-known predilections is for killing, or at least attempting to kill, anyone who might displease him. Or like Assad with his chemical weapons, maybe Putin kills just for the sheer, malicious fun of it. The list of victims is long: Babchenko (except, not), the two Skripals (except, not them either), political opponents like Boris Nemtsov and Sergei Yushenkov, muckraking journalists like Anna Politkovskaya and Natalia Estemirova, former chekist Aleksandr Litvinenko, RT network founder Mikhail Lesin, crusading lawyers like Stanislav Markelov and Sergei Magnitsky, oligarch Boris Berezovsky, and so on. A well-timed rubout of a suitably visible figure would have a salubrious impact on any annoying moves towards east-west rapprochement. No evidence is needed – the mere identity of the victim would be irrefutable proof of Putin’s guilt.

    Regarding the last item, assassination, it should always be kept in mind that in the end the man threatening to upset the applecart of the liberal global order isn’t Putin – it’s Trump. That suggests an ultimate solution that might become tempting if The Donald’s continued functioning at higher than room temperature becomes just too much to endure.

    As Joseph Stalin is reputed to have remarked, “Death solves all problems. No man, no problem.” Trump, who for many powerful people is quite a problem indeed, has been recklessly compared to Jean-Marie Le Pen, Silvio Berlusconi, Vladimir Putin – even to Hitler and Mussolini. In an American context, to Andrew Jackson, Huey Long, and George Wallace. Let’s note that each of those three Americans was the target of assassination. Jackson (someone Trump is known to admire) survived by a failure of his attacker’s pistols, hailed by some at the time as miraculous. “The Kingfish” was killed. Wallace was crippled for life.

    There is reason to think that Trump is well aware of the fate of the last American president who so threatened the habitual order of things and the entrenched, ruthless establishment that profits so mightily from it. He has repeatedly indicated his interest in releasing the full file on Jack Kennedy’s assassination, then backed off from it for undisclosed reasons. The shooting death of the president’s brother Robert Kennedy, who had he been elected president in 1968 would have had the opportunity to reopen the investigation into his brother’s murder, is back in the news with Robert Kennedy, Jr., expressing doubt about the official conclusion that his father was killed by Sirhan Sirhan.

    If anyone thinks there is any length to which Trump’s enemies will not go, think again.

  • Visualizing How American Household Finances Are Changing

    Via VisualCapitalist.com,

    VISUALIZING SHIFTS IN INCOME, SAVINGS, DEBT, AND SPENDING

    Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

    FROM PEAK TO PEAK

    In 2007, real median household income had a local peak of $58,149, and then fell off a cliff at the same time as the credit cycle, which reached its own peak in 2008 Q3 as the financial crisis set in.

    Real median household income bottomed in 2012, and then debt followed in 2013.

    Looking at the most recent year of data available, both categories are now back above pre-crisis highs. Real median household income has now surpassed its all-time record in 1999 – and total household debt has topped $13 trillion in 2018 Q1, more than $500 billion higher than its previous peak in 2008.

    A CLOSER LOOK

    While consumer debt is similar in terms of total size from a decade ago, the composition has changed considerably.

    Mortgage debt, which makes up the vast majority of consumer debt, is still actually down from its 2008 peak by 4%. Replacing that is other forms of debt, including student loans:

    Note: it appears the data listed in this table is one quarter more recent than Meeker’s, which was represented in chart

    Since 2008, student loan debt has surged by 131% – and auto loans by 52%. Mortgage debt, credit debt, and other non-housing debt have not yet crawled back to pre-crisis peaks.

    SAVING AND SPENDING

    Looking at the longer-term trend, Americans are borrowing more and saving fewer dollars.

    In the 1970s, both rates were about the same as a percentage of income, falling in a range between 13-15%. Today, the savings rate is below 5%, and debt-to-annual income ratio has risen to 22%, according to Meeker.

    What are American households spending money on?

    Notably, households are spending more on shelter and healthcare – meanwhile, the cost for food, entertainment, and apparel are decreasing over time.

  • The NSA's Newly-Declassified Propaganda Posters Are Wild

    Authored by Katherine Schwab via FastCoDesign.com,

    Plenty of bosses hang up motivational posters around the office. But it’s not just companies that do this kind of brainwashing by graphic design: the NSA does, too.

    A ream of internal propaganda posters that the NSA released in the 1950s and 1960s are now available online, thanks to a FOIA request from 2016. And they are a perfect mix of surreal imagery, pop culture references, and dark propaganda. One poster has a creepy skull inside of a spotlight with the words, “Don’t TALK yourself to death!”

    A “Season’s Greetings” poster displays a Norman Rockwell-esque scene of a cute little town blanketed in snow–and a grim reminder at the bottom of the image that “security takes no holiday.” This poster in particular is so creepy because of how the designers juxtaposed the sheer normalcy of the scene and the frilly, Hallmark Card font used to wish employees happy holidays with their eerie message of constant vigilance and loyalty to the government.

    Perhaps the most bone-chilling is a poster featuring the last words of the Gettysburg Address, with the word “people” crossed out in bloody red ink and replaced with “STATE.” Just in case NSA employees forgot who they were working for.

    Because these paranoid posters are from so many years ago, the NSA of today doesn’t know who designed them, but whoever it was had the daunting task of reminding employees what the NSA is all about while scaring them into keeping their mouths shut. And the designers used some surreal tactics to get their point across. One poster declares, “Security is everyone’s responsibility” with dozens of heads that look like they were cut out from magazines floating on a pale yellow background.

    Another shows a group of people walking down some stairs, all with images of old-fashioned safe locks in place of their mouths–bizarre enough to give you nightmares. Perhaps one of the most direct shows an image of a man’s hands tied behind his back with the grim caption, “Communist security.”

    After all, many of the posters were from the era of McCarthy’s Red Scare.

    There are pop culture and artistic references in the posters as well, including the Mona Lisa, Rodin’s The Thinker, and even a poster devoted to John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, complete with a terrible, hilarious pun: “Security-fever–catch it!”

    It’s like the NSA is a very dorky parent who’s trying to be hip–dad jokes about John Travolta and all–but still has to make sure the kids never tell the family secrets.

    The NSA told me that these kinds of posters still populate its walls, mostly in office areas where employees tend to congregate, like elevators, cafeterias, and water fountains, and maintains that they’re nothing out of the ordinary. Nonetheless, old posters are surreal gems of graphic design that capture the anxiety–and insanity–of the Cold War era.

    Check out the entire set of posters here.

  • Stunning Hawaii Aerial Footage Shows Mile-Wide Volcanic Front, 230 Ft Lava Geyser

    Aerial and satellite photos taken over the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s big island reveal the extent of devastation caused by the massive eruption which began on May 3 – destroying 600 homes, roughly 500 of which occurred after the most recent eruption, which sent lava coursing through the communities of Kapoho beach and Vacationland. While thousands of people have been evacuated from the region, officials fear up to a dozen residents who refused to leave are dead. 

    The USGS notes that an estimated 4008.2 million cubic feet of lava has saturated the Eastern side of the Big Island – which would fill 45,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, or 11 million dump trucks – enough to cover Manhattan Island up to a depth of six feet. 

    Aerial footage shows the flow front covering nearly a mile of coastline spewing toxic steam, also known as “vog,” which will be blown inland until at least Sunday. 

    Meanwhile, fissure #8 is belching a steady fountain of lava up to 230 feet in the air. 

    Flow map as of Friday:

    A helicopter flyover of the crater shows the funnel-shaped collapsed floor with a deeper cylindrical shaft filled with rubble. 

    A special mention goes out to the USGS Volcano social media team (@USGSVolcanoes, Facebook), who have been working hard to provide a constant flow of critical updates and stunning footage of the ongoing Kilauea eruption, along with fun facts:

  • Facing The (Horrible) Future

    Authored by Chris Martenson via PeakProsperity.com,

    I’d like to tell you a short story based on a movie that has had a profound impact on me.

    I’ll get to the story in a moment, but first, a little background on the movie… 

    It’s called Griefwalker (by Tim Wilson) and it focuses on the life and wisdom of Stephen Jenkinson, a theologian and philosopher who worked as an end-of-life specialist for many years.  Because we all must face death in our lives, inevitably our own someday, I highly recommend this movie and Stephen’s work to everyone. 

    After sitting at the death beds of a thousand individuals, Stephen has accumulated a wisdom regarding the process of dying that is perhaps unmatched in our modern times. His views and insights are extraordinarily powerful and extremely well-delivered in the movie. 

    Stephen is a blunt yet thoughtful man, and my own interview with him (Living with Meaning) remains one of my all-time favorites.

    At one point in Griefwalker, Stephen was lobbed what I’m sure the interviewer thought was a soft-ball question.  From memory, and I last watched the movie a few years ago so I’m certain to have this inexactly recalled, it was along the lines of “So, Stephen, you’ve learned how to ease people through the process of dying. How is that done?”  I guess the idea was that after being so steeped and skilled at shepherding people through the process of dying, Stephen had arrived at some tidy formula for making it as gentle as possible.

    Without blinking Stephen said, “Oh no. Dying for most people these days is horrible.”  After a few shocked fumbly moments by the interviewer, and I confess to having been shocked too, Stephen continued, explaining that the physical process of dying can certainly be managed easily and well with palliative care, but the emotional journey can be quite terrifying (at first). 

    The reason why is because most people spend their entire lives pretending as if death is somehow avoidable. So when they find themselves dying, they suddenly have to confront the fact that they may have forgotten to fully ‘live’ during their one and only shot at life. 

    To suddenly realize the most precious thing you had was barely treasured along the way, never to be recovered, can indeed be a horrible moment.

    As far as we know, we’ve only got one life to live — and facing our end puts that into sharp focus. As Stephen says in his book Money and the Soul’s Desires, “Not success. Not growth. Not happiness. The cradle of your love of life … is death.”

    To look back on one’s time on Earth and realize how much of it was spent not really being alive, not loving, not noticing, not being present with what is, is to realize that your one glorious ride was largely spent without reflection, depth or meaning. It was squandered. And there’s no undoing that fact. Again, that moment of realization is a bad moment.

    I’m not writing this to push you to ponder your own demise, though that may be a healthy pursuit for many of us. Rather, I want to direct your attention towards a moment of horror that I think is coming – for all of us.

    Where We’re Headed

    Travel with me to the future. Imagine that the year is now 2040. 

    If we suddenly woke in that year, what would we see in the world?  More importantly, what would we not see? Which species would be missing? Which ecosystems will have utterly collapsed?

    By extrapolating trends already in place (many of which are accelerating) we can easily predict a future world where there are no large animals left. Perhaps the last giraffe was killed and eaten by a hungry mob back in 2033, joining the White Rhino which was lost back in 2018. 

    Lions and tigers can no longer be found in the wild; their genetic stock hopelessly compressed into a few zoos and frozen test-tubes, should humans ever rally to justify the expense of trying to resurrect those species. 

    There are no coral reefs anywhere in the oceans, and essentially no diversity of life left in the seas at all. Acidification has upset and mostly ruined the ocean ecology from the bottom up.

    First, we noticed that the oysters no longer successfully made it out of the larval stage. But by the time the scientists delivered a loud enough warning for all of the missing copepods and other vital zooplankton, it was already too late. The jellyfish had taken over. Nobody has a clue how to get the ecology to return to one that can support tuna, rockfish, dolphins, whales, seals and seabirds. Those are all gone — starved, fished or hunted to extinction.

    Worse, the ubiquitous jellyfish are entirely too efficient. In addition to decimating the zooplankton, the jellyfish are eating the phytoplankton responsible for generating most of the world’s oxygen — their levels too low to continue being a positive force for oxygen release into the atmosphere. “Don’t worry!” scream the Tweets, “Scientists have found a new and better way in the lab to harness the sun to split water. We can make our own oxygen!”  However, after the past 1,000+ lab ‘miracle breakthroughs’ that proved to be duds when attempted at scale, few have hope that this time will prove any different.

    The vast systems offered by Nature — more accurately, that were offered by Nature — once taken for granted, are now fully appreciated by the people left on Earth. But it’s too late. 

    The insects are mostly gone, at least in terms of diversity. The terrestrial ecosystem balance that people knew and loved back in “the twenty teens” is gone and has been replaced by something far simpler and painfully less interesting. The failure to block neonicotinoid pesticides in time, as well as their more morally repugnant (yet legal!) derivations that outpaced activist’s ability to fight them, meant that entire classes of pollinators were lost. 

    With those, entire species of plants disappeared because they were utterly dependent on highly-specific pollinator services. Mankind’s few lame attempts at creating “drone pollinators” were so utterly unfit for the task that the term became a profoundly disparaging insult, most frequently applied to ineffective politicians.  “Looks like another useless bill being put up by the drone pollinator from New York.”

    A few hardy bugs and roaches, lots and lots of ants (where are they all coming from?), and very few flying insects remain. No more large moths in the temperate climates, with such splendid examples as the Luna and Hawk moths now only existing as dead specimens in a few museums, right next to the dodo and African elephant displays. 

    And it’s been over 15 years since “the dawn chorus of birds” was a phrase that had any meaning. Nearly all of the migratory birds are gone, along with all of the insect eating species.  It’s eerily silent outside in the morning. The sight of a single bumblebee, or a flash of colorful plumage, is cause for a quickening of your pulse — the same physical reaction people once had when as noticing a movie star at a café.

    Life, where it now exists in pockets, is revered.  In nearly every place it remains, human guardians quickly dispatch any poachers or defilers, burying the bodies without remorse.  Non-human life has become more valuable than human life.

    Fossil fuels began peaking in 2030 in terms of total BTUs from all sources: oil, gas and coal. And while not crashing, they’ve unable to provide more, which exposed the ‘continuous growth’ model as being a cruelly-attractive mirage. Its handmaiden, debt-based money, was also revealed to be an artifact of the surplus energy from fossil fuels. Both models have failed. 

    As has retirement, a several-generation luxury never to be repeated again in human history. Everyone left alive has to work, if they want to eat.

    With the loss of those fantasies, everything is now a difficult trade-off. Not surprising, many people are unable to cope with the consequences.  Suicides are a leading cause of death, especially among those born during earlier and more abundant times. 

    Worst of all, food is now increasingly scarce due to a horrid combination of ruined soils and ever more frequent and destructive climate disruptions. Rains fall where they shouldn’t and fail increasingly to fall where they should.  Or they fall too hard, and too fast.   Summers with temperatures of over 50C baked crops compounding water shortages, with several years’ harvests lost entirely because the overnight temperatures did not cool sufficiently to allow for the open-air pollination of corn. Who knew?

    How did we ever get to 9 billion people on Earth without considering that this moment might have arrived?

    How did we allow ourselves to pretend that it wouldn’t?

    Why did we let the fantasy of relocating to Mars capture such a broad swath of our imagination and focus?  Sure, we put an outpost there for a few years in the 2020’s, but – guess what? – it turns out that Mars is a hostile planet to life. It’s utterly lacking in resources, it’s much farther from the sun than the Earth, and managing a high-tech existence there was a colossal struggle.  Of course we should have realized that going in and not placed so much of our species’ odds on that hope. We spent hundreds of billions getting to Mars at the same time we were spending trillions to destroy Earth.  What a horrible idea that was.  In retrospect, it’s all so terribly obvious.

    Another forlorn diversion was vertical farming, which posited that we’d just grow salad greens in container boxes.  Of course, with some simple math and logic, we should have been able to realize that plants are calorie conversion machines, turning light energy into food energy.  The idea that we were going to meaningfully replace the sun’s free and intense full-spectrum light with our own manufactured lighting, at scale and in sufficient quantities to meaningfully address the caloric needs of 9 billion people was…not very well thought through.  Actually, in retrospect, that’s being too kind.  We were deluding ourselves.

    And so, out here in 2040, looking back, we humans have suddenly come to our collective moment of horrible realization. Because we could not face the idea that our specie’s pursuit of collective growth had a predictable end, we forgot to properly care for the one planet we have.

    Now that life on Earth is dying, the regret comes pouring out.  Oh, how much we’d give to once again be able to hear a cacophony of birds in the morning! Or to swim over a thriving coral reef!  Or to boat over an ocean teeming with fishes, whales and sea birds.  Instead, the waters are now blank, sterile and depressing. 

    Remorse and regret.  How could we have been so utterly stupid?  How could we not have rallied in response to the warning signs, the endless string of increasingly desperate red flashing warning lights any one of which could have — and should have — been sufficient to motivate us?

    Oh, what we would give to get one more chance!  To go back in time and do things differently, protecting and preserving the Earth’s treasures as if…as if we were deeply in love with all of them.

    Our Last Chance

    In Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is given the chance to return to his present and get another shot at life. If the 2040 vision I’ve painted terrifies you on a fundamental level as it does me, just know that there’s still the chance to wake up and positively alter the course of events.

    Yes, the trends are very bad, but they can be changed. As I am fond of saying, we already have all the knowledge and technology we need to be agents of regeneration and abundance instead of extraction and degeneration. We simply lack the right narrative to mobilize our society productively.

    Go outside and rejoice in what nature has still to offer.  Really see the next bird or mammal or insect you encounter.  Each one is pure magic.  Take a good hard look at the individual before you, not a robin, but that robin. Not a squirrel, but that squirrel. That bumblebee.  Each is an individual, same as you.  Each has a role, a life, and is busy making decisions and contributing to the story exactly how it is supposed to.

    This world we have is the only one we’ll ever have. It’s the one we evolved on and to which our DNA blueprints are exquisitely crafted. And it’s not dying, it’s being killed. We might as well be honest about that and use the active verb.

    Killed actively and on purpose, but also by negligence.  We’re neglecting to notice what’s true: that humans are a part of, not apart from nature.  We are one with the larger world.  It’s time to wake up and live into that story. It’s not a new one, but something we forgot in our hasty failing efforts to escape its limits — limits that disappointed our fragile egos which wanted, needed, to be special and different. 

    Life ends, and life begins. There’s an evolutionary impulse underway that has given this brief moment of geological history both humans and elephants.  We cannot know where evolution is going or why, but we can feel the potential of it all.

    Elephants, as well as all of life, should be revered and cared for not because children’s books need real-life examples, or zoos need fresh breeding stock, or even because Kenya needs tourist dollars. But simply because they are here. With us. In this time.

    A certain humility needs to be adopted along the lines of We simply don’t know what role the special and peculiar sentience of elephants is playing, so we’d better protect it. Because we don’t know. If we remove that species from the web of life, what cascade may we create?

    A Call To Action

    I could dredge up all the perilous ecological data I publish often on this site, noting the decline in virtually every species — with many being lost every day and many more on the brink. But I won’t.

    There’s no need. You already know in your gut that something is very badly wrong in this story. Something even worse than killing the life on the planet, including our own.

    No, what’s worse is that we can do better but we’re not.  We can have immense empathy, and bond with both humans and non-humans alike.  We are capable of dimly grasping our own role on this planet and yet we’re collectively continuing to act as if….we’ll live forever.  If there are problems with that approach, we’re assuming we’ll figure them out as they arise.

    But as Stephen Jenkinson pointed out, when the stakes are too high that leads to a horrible moment. To get serious about saving other species after they are already gone is a wildly immature idea. 

    But it is still in our power to avoid that horrible moment. That’s where the idea of a ‘movement’ comes in.  Look, I have little clue about how to actually start a self-sustaining global movement, but I do suspect that it has to involve (1) the right idea at (2) the right time and (3) involve the right people.

    We have to do this. I know the time is right because so many people are already deeply unhappy with suicide rates up 30%, opioid addictions and death skyrocketing, and levels of depression (more accurately termed demoralization in most cases) at never before seen levels. 

    Those are all expressions of people who have lost their will to engage with life, or even to continue living.  That means a loss of meaning and purpose, a devastating loss. Adam’s recent report gives a hard-hitting breakdown of the mental health epidemic our disconnected and unfulfilling modern way of life has created. Be sure to read it if you haven’t already.

    To truly “save the planet” is to actually undertake the harder proposition of “saving ourselves.”  The planet will be fine … but humans?  Maybe not so much.

    Changing any of this will begin with each of us as individuals.  We have to become the change we wish to see.  We have to shift the narrative away from the old bankrupt idea of infinite growth on a finite planet, or that humans are apart from (rather than a part of) Nature, and towards a better narrative that aligns better with the world as it actually is.

    This is a tough sell, for sure. Ultimately, it requires us to find a way past our instinctual drive for comfort and more ‘stuff’.  Waking up to the realities involved is not easy nor pain-free. It’s emotionally devastating at first. And who wants to go through that?

    “Inattention to the world’s ecological state is well advised. Because attention to it mitigates against your happiness, contentment, and your sense of well-being.”

    “Having a conscience now is a grief-soaked proposition”

    ― Stephen Jenkinson

    I do, for one. Why? Because to do so is to pass through the tunnel that brings me back to living fully into the one life that I have.  I’m here to live, to make a difference, and to help usher new ideas into the world. The alternative is to face a bitter end-of-life moment that was unavoidable in the first place.

    What needs to happen is to somehow awaken the people of the world to the actual nature of the predicaments we face, recognize their inevitability, and go through the wrenching adjustments necessary to realign our collective narrative with the objective truths of our times. 

    But how?

    In some ways I’m encouraged, because so many people seem to be waking up.  I know this terrifies The Powers That Be, who so desperately want to cling to their authority at any and all costs, because I track their efforts towards shaping the narrative.  There’s nothing subtle about the ways that Wikipedia constantly degrades and disparages the pages devoted to anti-war activists while grotesquely supporting the neocon and war party efforts and related sympathetic journalists.

    Twitter and Facebook are constantly stifling various views while elevating those that fall under the umbrella of promoting business as usual and protecting the ideas of those already in power.  In other words: more war, more unfairness, and maybe some barely-passable lip-service to the idea that maybe we should devote a percent or two of our resources towards rear-guard actions to protect the environment.  None of which are actually effective, of course, or else they would be immediately marginalized as the work of terrorists or malcontents.

    All of which is to say that any revolution of thought won’t be televised, as they once said., Perhaps in today’s age we should amend this to: The revolution won’t be posted to FB and then successfully re-Tweeted.

    In other words, please don’t wait for this to appear on your radar before you take it seriously.  It will only ever appear long after it’s far too late.

    The revolution underway is already being conducted in places like our own site Peak Prosperity, as well as Charles Eisenstein’s, Charles Hugh Smith’s, Zerohedge, Jim Kunstler, and Craig Murray’s as well as countless others not named here.  Each of these sites is committed to telling narratives that run counter to what the guardians in the MSM would like you to hear. 

    Each of these alternative websites is saying, in its own way, Hey the old way doesn’t even make sense anymore, is shot through with logical inconsistencies, and in many cases lacks even basic morality. Collectively, they’re offering an invitation to see things differently, and to begin acting differently.

    Our challenge is to remain focused, to promote the new ideas, and to be the leaders that are needed in these changing and difficult times.  Our adversaries are those peddling fantasies that serve only to pacify our growing inner discomfort as the world dies around us, as well as those who seek to diffuse, distort and decay the new messages either for corporate or political ends.

    Our various social media platforms are a slithering mess of ever-changing algorithms (making it hard to know who you are or aren’t reaching with any given post), paid trolls, and bots programmed to deceive, slide, and/or derail any given conversation.

    Which means we’ll need to be alert to those tactics and find other ways of remaining in touch.  You’ll need to trust your own instincts, and avoid the numerous and sophisticated ways that we are being made to feel powerless, isolated, and even a bit crazy for thinking the things we do.

    My personal strategy is to (severely) limit my time on Facebook, use Twitter only for data and never opinions, and then comment at sites like Peak Prosperity where the moderation is heavy and bots and trolls are quickly booted.

    This movement will consist of good people taking right action.  People who are willing to lead because they know it falls to them and they are not afraid to stand out and be different for a while.  People who can read the data and know that it is correct because they can feel it in their bones.

    The time for infinite growth is over. It’s increasingly obvious that the benefits of pursuing growth have nosed over, and that the human rocket is now pointed towards the Earth.

    We still have time to right this ship, but it’s going to take heroic efforts by a lot of people.  We need to be willing to give much and possibly lose even more.  However, it won’t be futile sacrifice, because this is just how things are sometimes.  You were born here and now, into these times, and your gifts are desperately needed.

    We need each other. And you know what?  Along they way we may just discover unity, purpose, meaning and our true individual gifts to bring forth.

    My personal invitation is to support the mission of Peak Prosperity (“Creating a World Worth Inheriting”) by becoming an active premium subscriber so that Adam and I can continue to bring these messages to the world, along with promising models for a sustainable future.  If not that, then please use your time and money to support others working in these areas, not least of which would be the important works of the individuals writing the blogs listed above.

    It’s only by facing the true nature of our predicaments that we can avoid a truly horrible future moment of deep and profound regret. 

    Time still remains, but it is running short. 

    We are open to any and all ideas about how to build, join or support a movement of like-minded people who are ready and able to shuck the old conventions and start anew which begins by facing the data as we know it today.

    None of the former splitting/sorting functions of old apply here.  So please don’t offer up one political party over the other, or any one country or system as being better, or ways we might vote new and better scoundrels into office, or tweaks to the existing exponential debt-based fiat money system that might extend things a bit longer.  None of those hold any merit.

    We need a new narrative and even if it cannot lay claim to “the truth” it cannot be based on obvious falsehoods.  How do we create that new narrative in a way that it can be shared broadly?  What needs to be done?  Who should be involved? 

    Perhaps nothing needs doing, and this will all unfold of its own accord when its ready, but for those with an active “do” gene, like us, there are things to be done and efforts to be made.

    So let’s get going.  Either we do this on our own terms now, or we all face the horror of profound regret later. 

    The really good news? If we do this right, we reclaim our lives, our sense of meaning, our connection to each other and the sacred, and we fulfill our potential as creative stewards of planet Earth.

  • Millionaire Bill Maher "Hoping" For Economic Disaster To Oust Trump

    HBO host Bill Maher, who makes $6 million/year on top of his estimated $100 million net worth, would love nothing more than an economic collapse in order to “get rid of Trump.” 

    “this economy is going pretty well,” Maher said (total jobless claims remain the lowest they’ve been in 44 years, for example) before telling political commentator Shermichael Singleton “I feel like the bottom has to fall out at some point. And by the way, I’m hoping for it. Because I think one you get rid of Trump is a crashing economy. So please, bring on the recession. Sorry if that hurts people, but it’s either root for a recession  or you lose your democracy.”

    Maher, a multi-millionaire, would hardly be affected if the economy crashed, unlike millions of low and medium income Americans whose lives would be immeasurably worse if the HBO host’s dreams come true.

    For example, Maher could continue to attend Dominus – an elite $75,000 / year members-only sex club that requires a “blood oath” to join. 

    As we noted earlier, Bank of America made the case that the only thing that would stop a “nuclear” trade war is a market crash, while last week Goldman suggested that if President Trump wants to win the brewing international trade war, the market has to tank. 

    As BofA puts it: 

    Market discipline could break the spiral. The markets provide immediate and publically observable feedback from investors on the expected effects of policies. So far, US equities have only had a small negative reaction to news on trade. This has likely emboldened the administration to take a more aggressive stance. But if back-and-forth tariffs with China were to cause a large selloff in US equities, China would probably push harder, knowing that continued escalation would be costly for the US.

    BofA escalated the impact of a market crash on the political realm, and writes that, in a similar manner, “elections clarify the costs and benefits of protectionism. If the Republican party retains control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in November’s midterm elections, free-trade advocates in the Republican party may remain reluctant to push back against the President. The opposite might be true if the Democrats win.”

    In summary, BofA sees risks to the view that “cooler heads will prevail” on trade, and its concern is not so much irrational action, but that the US and its trading partners could rationally engage in tit-for-tat protectionism, with growing economic costs, in order to test each other’s resolve, while markets remain dormant and allow even greater escalation. Still, the Bank of America economists ultimately remain hopeful “because market and electoral discipline could break up this dynamic.“

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  • Still Waiting For Evidence Of A Russian Hack

    Authored by Ray McGovern via Consortium News,

    More than two years after the allegation of Russian hacking of the 2016 U.S. presidential election was first made, conclusive proof is still lacking and may never be produced…

    If you are wondering why so little is heard these days of accusations that Russia hacked into the U.S. election in 2016, it could be because those charges could not withstand close scrutiny. It could also be because special counsel Robert Mueller appears to have never bothered to investigate what was once the central alleged crime in Russia-gate as no one associated with WikiLeaks has ever been questioned by his team.

    Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity — including two “alumni” who were former National Security Agency technical directors — have long since concluded that Julian Assange did not acquire what he called the “emails related to Hillary Clinton” via a “hack” by the Russians or anyone else. They found, rather, that he got them from someone with physical access to Democratic National Committee computers who copied the material onto an external storage device — probably a thumb drive. In December 2016 VIPS explained this in some detail in an open Memorandum to President Barack Obama.

    On January 18, 2017 President Obama admitted that the “conclusions” of U.S. intelligence regarding how the alleged Russian hacking got to WikiLeaks were “inconclusive.” Even the vapid FBI/CIA/NSA “Intelligence Community Assessment of Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent U.S. Elections” of January 6, 2017, which tried to blame Russian President Vladimir Putin for election interference, contained no direct evidence of Russian involvement.  That did not prevent the “handpicked” authors of that poor excuse for intelligence analysis from expressing “high confidence” that Russian intelligence “relayed material it acquired from the Democratic National Committee … to WikiLeaks.”  Handpicked analysts, of course, say what they are handpicked to say.

    Never mind. The FBI/CIA/NSA “assessment” became bible truth for partisans like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who was among the first off the blocks to blame Russia for interfering to help Trump.  It simply could not have been that Hillary Clinton was quite capable of snatching defeat out of victory all by herself.  No, it had to have been the Russians.

    Five days into the Trump presidency, I had a chance to challenge Schiff personally on the gaping disconnect between the Russians and WikiLeaks. Schiff still “can’t share the evidence” with me … or with anyone else, because it does not exist.

    Schiff: Can’t share evidence

    WikiLeaks

    It was on June 12, 2016, just six weeks before the Democratic National Convention, that Assange announced the pending publication of “emails related to Hillary Clinton,” throwing the Clinton campaign into panic mode, since the emails would document strong bias in favor of Clinton and successful attempts to sabotage the campaign of Bernie Sanders.  When the emails were published on July 22, just three days before the convention began, the campaign decided to create what I call a Magnificent Diversion, drawing attention away from the substance of the emails by blaming Russia for their release.

    Clinton’s PR chief Jennifer Palmieri later admitted that she golf-carted around to various media outlets at the convention with instructions “to get the press to focus on something even we found difficult to process: the prospect that Russia had not only hacked and stolen emails from the DNC, but that it had done so to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.”  The diversion worked like a charm.  Mainstream media kept shouting “The Russians did it,” and gave little, if any, play to the DNC skullduggery revealed in the emails themselves. And like Brer’ Fox, Bernie didn’t say nothin’.

    Meanwhile, highly sophisticated technical experts, were hard at work fabricating “forensic facts” to “prove” the Russians did it.  Here’s how it played out:

    June 12, 2016: Assange announces that WikiLeaks is about to publish “emails related to Hillary Clinton.”

    June 14, 2016: DNC contractor CrowdStrike, (with a dubious professional record and multiple conflicts of interest) announces that malware has been found on the DNC server and claims there is evidence it was injected by Russians.

    June 15, 2016: “Guccifer 2.0” affirms the DNC statement; claims responsibility for the “hack;” claims to be a WikiLeaks source; and posts a document that the forensics show was synthetically tainted with “Russian fingerprints.”

    The June 12, 14, & 15 timing was hardly coincidence. Rather, it was the start of a pre-emptive move to associate Russia with anything WikiLeaks might have been about to publish and to “show” that it came from a Russian hack.

    Enter Independent Investigators

    A year ago independent cyber-investigators completed the kind of forensic work that, for reasons best known to then-FBI Director James Comey, neither he nor the “handpicked analysts” who wrote the Jan. 6, 2017 assessment bothered to do.  The independent investigators found verifiable evidence from metadata found in the record of an alleged Russian hack of July 5, 2016 showing that the “hack” that day of the DNC by Guccifer 2.0 was not a hack, by Russia or anyone else.

    Rather it originated with a copy (onto an external storage device – a thumb drive, for example) by an insider — the same process used by the DNC insider/leaker before June 12, 2016 for an altogether different purpose. (Once the metadata was found and the “fluid dynamics” principle of physics applied, this was not difficult to disprove the validity of the claim that Russia was responsible.)

    One of these independent investigators publishing under the name of The Forensicator on May 31 published new evidence that the Guccifer 2.0 persona uploaded a document from the West Coast of the United States, and not from Russia.

    In our July 24, 2017 Memorandum to President Donald Trump we stated, “We do not know who or what the murky Guccifer 2.0 is. You may wish to ask the FBI.”

    Our July 24 Memorandum continued:

    “Mr. President, the disclosure described below may be related. Even if it is not, it is something we think you should be made aware of in this general connection. On March 7, 2017, WikiLeaks began to publish a trove of original CIA documents that WikiLeaks labeled ‘Vault 7.’ WikiLeaks said it got the trove from a current or former CIA contractor and described it as comparable in scale and significance to the information Edward Snowden gave to reporters in 2013.

    “No one has challenged the authenticity of the original documents of Vault 7, which disclosed a vast array of cyber warfare tools developed, probably with help from NSA, by CIA’s Engineering Development Group. That Group was part of the sprawling CIA Directorate of Digital Innovation – a growth industry established by John Brennan in 2015. [ (VIPS warned President Obama of some of the dangers of that basic CIA reorganization at the time.]

    Marbled

    “Scarcely imaginable digital tools – that can take control of your car and make it race over 100 mph, for example, or can enable remote spying through a TV – were described and duly reported in the New York Times and other media throughout March. But the Vault 7, part 3 release on March 31 that exposed the “Marble Framework” program apparently was judged too delicate to qualify as ‘news fit to print’ and was kept out of the Times at the time, and has never been mentioned since.

    “The Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima, it seems, ‘did not get the memo’ in time. Her March 31 article bore the catching (and accurate) headline: ‘WikiLeaks’ latest release of CIA cyber-tools could blow the cover on agency hacking operations.’

    “The WikiLeaks release indicated that Marble was designed for flexible and easy-to-use ‘obfuscation,’ and that Marble source code includes a “de-obfuscator” to reverse CIA text obfuscation.

    “More important, the CIA reportedly used Marble during 2016. In her Washington Post report, Nakashima left that out, but did include another significant point made by WikiLeaks; namely, that the obfuscation tool could be used to conduct a ‘forensic attribution double game’ or false-flag operation because it included test samples in Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Farsi.”

    A few weeks later William Binney, a former NSA technical director, and I commented on Vault 7 Marble, and were able to get a shortened op-ed version published in The Baltimore Sun.

    The CIA’s reaction to the WikiLeaks disclosure of the Marble Framework tool was neuralgic. Then Director Mike Pompeo lashed out two weeks later, calling Assange and his associates “demons,” and insisting; “It’s time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is, a non-state hostile intelligence service, often abetted by state actors like Russia.”

    Our July 24 Memorandum continued: 

    “Mr. President, we do not know if CIA’s Marble Framework, or tools like it, played some kind of role in the campaign to blame Russia for hacking the DNC. Nor do we know how candid the denizens of CIA’s Digital Innovation Directorate have been with you and with Director Pompeo. These are areas that might profit from early White House review.  [ President Trump then directed Pompeo to invite Binney, one of the authors of the July 24, 2017 VIPS Memorandum to the President, to discuss all this.  Binney and Pompeo spent an hour together at CIA Headquarters on October 24, 2017, during which Binney briefed Pompeo with his customary straightforwardness. ]

    “We also do not know if you have discussed cyber issues in any detail with President Putin. In his interview with NBC’s Megyn Kelly he seemed quite willing – perhaps even eager – to address issues related to the kind of cyber tools revealed in the Vault 7 disclosures, if only to indicate he has been briefed on them. Putin pointed out that today’s technology enables hacking to be ‘masked and camouflaged to an extent that no one can understand the origin’ [of the hack] … And, vice versa, it is possible to set up any entity or any individual that everyone will think that they are the exact source of that attack.

    “‘Hackers may be anywhere,’ he said. ‘There may be hackers, by the way, in the United States who very craftily and professionally passed the buck to Russia. Can’t you imagine such a scenario? … I can.”

    New attention has been drawn to these issues after I discussed them in a widely published 16-minute interview last Friday.

    In view of the highly politicized environment surrounding these issues, I believe I must append here the same notice that VIPS felt compelled to add to our key Memorandum of July 24, 2017:

    “Full Disclosure: Over recent decades the ethos of our intelligence profession has eroded in the public mind to the point that agenda-free analysis is deemed well nigh impossible. Thus, we add this disclaimer, which applies to everything we in VIPS say and do: We have no political agenda; our sole purpose is to spread truth around and, when necessary, hold to account our former intelligence colleagues.

    “We speak and write without fear or favor. Consequently, any resemblance between what we say and what presidents, politicians and pundits say is purely coincidental.”

    The fact we find it is necessary to include that reminder speaks volumes about these highly politicized times.

  • Trump At G-7 Closing Remarks: "We're The Piggy Bank That Everybody's Robbing"

    President Trump’s 24 hours in Quebec while attending the annual G-7 Summit was every bit as confrontational as we imagined they would be. The president has enraged his fellow world leaders, insulted Justin Trudeau, who’s hosting the summit in Quebec and whom Trump repeated referenced as just “Justin”, and skipped a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has attacked him and vowed to challenge his “America First” trade agenda while also confronting him about his climate stance – something that might be difficult to do, since Trump left this morning after he said he would skip  discussions about climate change Saturday night.

    Trump

    Trump also showed up late to a gender-focused breakfast meeting, billed by the event’s Canadian organizers as a chance for leaders to “draft concrete actions for the G-7 to advance gender equality,” according to CBC. Isabelle Hudon, Canada’s ambassador to France, was making opening remarks when Trump and a flood of press pool members arrived and interrupted her.

    As Trump quietly took his place between Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, and Lt.-Gen. Christine Whitecross, the Canadian head of the NATO college in Rome, Trudeau restated his welcome and Hudon repeated her remarks.

    Then there were his controversial remarks. Early on, Trump suggested that the G-7 should consider readmitting Russia, which was kicked out in 2014 for its activities in Crimea. Trump instead blamed those on Obama. Also on Friday, Trump floated the idea of ending all tariffs and trade barriers between the US and its allies – a pitch that wasn’t exactly expected, according to Politico. Trump offered the proposal at the end of a “contentious” meeting on trade disputes. Most G-7 members remain furious with Trump over his decision to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports, and his threats to impose more trade restrictions. Merkel responded positively to Trump’s suggestion, saying she would consider it.

    “We should at least consider no tariffs, no barriers — scrapping all of it,” Trump said, according to officials who were listening and taking notes.

    Before leaving for his meeting with Kim Jong Un, Trump provided an update during a live press conference with Larry Kudlow and John Bolton. First he thanked Trudeau and praised Canada as a “beautiful country” before launching into a summary of issues starting with trade. Though he walked away without signing the US on to the traditional post-summit agreement (providing more fodder for critics who sneered about the G-6 + 1), Trump insisted that the G-7 was “tremendously successful” and despite trade tensions “relationships are outstanding.” He adds that the tariff situation is “going to change, 100 percent” as the US is “like the piggy bank that everyone robs”.

    During his talk, Trump alternated between stream-of-conscious rambling about trade, Russia and North Korea and taking questions from reporters.

    On trade:

    “We had productive discussion on having fair and reciprocal” trade and market access.

    “We’re linked in the great effort to create a more just and prosperous world. And from the standpoint of trade and creating more prosperous countries, I think they are starting to be committed to more fair trade. We as a nation lost $870 billion on trade…I blame our leaders and I congratulate leaders of other countries for taking advantage of our leaders.”

    “If they retaliate they’re making a tremendous mistake because you see we have a tremendous trade imbalance…the numbers are so much against them, we win that war 1000 times out of a 1000.”

    “We’re negotiating very hard, tariffs and barriers…the European Union is brutal to the United States….the gig is up…there’s nothing they can say.”

    “We’re like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing.”

    “I would say the level of relationship is a ten – Angela, Emmanuel and Justin – we have a very good relationship. I won’t blame these people, unless they don’t smarten up and make the trades fair.”

    On eliminating trade barriers:

    “That’s the way it should be. No tariffs, no barriers – no subsidies.”

    “You go tariff free you go barrier-free you go subsidy-free – that’s the way we learned it at the Wharton School of Finance. We can’t have an example where the US is paying fees of 270%.”

    Then “Worst, Fake News” CNN asked President Trump how disastrous his trade policies are and how his actions are hurting relationships… to which he replied very informatively, ending “so you can tell that to your fake friends at CNN…”

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    On North Korea:

    “I feel that Kim Jong Un wants to do something great for his people…he’s got an opportunity that, if you look back into history, few people have ever had.”

    “This is a great opportunity for peace and lasting peace and prosperity.”

    “It’s going to be something that’s always spur of the moment…this is an unknown personality many people don’t know.”

    “You know how they say you know whether you’ll like somebody in the first five seconds? I think I’ll know pretty quickly whether we’re going to make a deal.”

    On Russia:

    “Some people like the idea of bringing Russia back in.” 

    Asked if Crimea should be considered Russia now:

    “you’d have to ask President Obama because he’s the one who let Crimea get away. He allowed Russia to take Crimea. I may have had a much different attitude.”

    Trump is now making the 20-hour flight to Singapore, where he will attend a historic summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un. We’ll now keep our eye out for the finalized communique from the group. The US is typically a leader in the crafting of the statement. But this time, it’s unclear if the US had any input at all into the statement, as only the leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan as well as the presidents of the European Commission and European Council remain at the meeting. But regardless of who writes it, the statement will probably be of little consequence, as UBS points out:

    Several heads of state will be heading off on a taxpayer-financed “mini-break” in Canada today. In all of its incarnations (over the past four years, we’ve gone from G-8 to G-6+1) the group hasn’t really accomplished much since an initial burst of enthusiasm with the Plaza Accords and Louvre Accords in the 1980s.

    And this meeting likely won’t be any different.

  • Trump Rage-Tweets That Trudeau Lied At G-7, Refuses To Endorse Final Statement

    Update: French Prime Minister Trudeau has responded to President Trump’s tweets.  Trudeau spokeswoman Chantal Gagnon issues statement by email:

    “We are focused on everything we accomplished here at the G-7 summit”

    “The Prime Minister said nothing he hasn’t said before – both in public, and in private conversations with the President”

    *  *  *

    Having been literally ‘squeezed’ by French President Macron while in Quebec for the G-7 Meetings, President Trump has lashed out at another French-speaking leader in a late-Saturday series of rage-tweets.

    As The Hill reports, a handshake between President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday has gained widespread attention on social media…

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    for the imprint of Macron’s thumb the French leader left on Trump’s hand.

    But after hours of to-ing and fro-ing among various representative of the G-7 nations, a final communique is yet to appear – and now, judging by Trump’s tweet tirade – it will indeed be a G6+1…

    US President Donald Trump says he will not endorse the final G7 communique and will look to impose tariffs on cars, potentially signalling a worsening of relations in a brewing trade war.

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier said his country would move ahead with retaliatory measures against the recently imposed US tariffs on allies’ steel and aluminum exports. He said the new tariffs on Canada were “insulting” and said he told Trump directly that Canadians “particularly did not take lightly the fact that it’s based on a national security reason” and held firm to the government’s threat of retaliation.

    “Canadians are polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.”

    Trump seemed particularly angered by Trudeau’s apparent two-faced comments, tweeting:

    “PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings only to give a news conference after I left saying that, ‘US Tariffs were kind of insulting’ and he ‘will not be pushed around’ Very dishonest & weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270 per cent on dairy!” Trump posted in another tweet.

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    “Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

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    The trade wars just escalated as Trump appears to be shifting his attention to autos now.

    It was not immediately clear where the new round of aggression would leave the two leaders and their mercurial attempts to find trade peace.

    Earlier while still in Quebec, Trump said he wants to make a deal on NAFTA, and he’s open to working with the current pact or striking separate agreements with Canada and Mexico — as long as they agree to renegotiate every five years.

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