In fact, American workers will spend on average of about six hours focusing on basketball during the tournament—checking brackets, watching a game online, reading coverage, and verifying team rankings, according to staffing firm OfficeTeam. This year, the financial site WalletHub has estimated that those distracted employees will cost U.S. businesses a total of $6.3 billion.

But the impact isn’t all bad. Bracket-building and office betting can also foster camaraderie. March Madness office betting makes 84% of employees happier in their jobs, according to a Randstad USA survey.

http://fortune.com/2018/03/22/march-madness-ncaa-basketball-money/?

“It is becoming more obvious with each passing day that the men and the movement that broke Lyndon Johnson’s authority in 1968 are out to break Richard Nixon,” wrote David Broder on October 8, 1969.

“The likelihood is great that they will succeed again.”

A columnist for The Washington Post, Broder was no fan of Nixon.

His prediction, however, proved wrong. Nixon, with his “Silent Majority” address, rallied the nation and rocked the establishment. He went on to win a 49-state victory in 1972, after which his stumbles opened the door to the establishment’s revenge.

Yet Broder’s analysis was spot on. And today, another deep state conspiracy to break another presidency is underway.

Consider. To cut through the Russophobia rampant here, Trump decided to make a direct phone call to Vladimir Putin. And in that call, Trump, like Angela Merkel, congratulated Putin on his re-election victory.

Instantly, the briefing paper for the president’s call was leaked to the Post. In bold letters it read “DO NOT CONGRATULATE.”

Whereupon the Beltway went ballistic.

How could Trump congratulate Putin, whose election was a sham? Why did he not charge Putin with the Salisbury poisoning? Why did he not denounce Putin for interfering with “our democracy”?

Amazing. A disloyal White House staffer betrays his trust and leaks a confidential paper to sabotage the foreign policy of a duly elected president, and he is celebrated in this capital city.

If you wish to see the deep state at work, this is it: anti-Trump journalists using First Amendment immunities to collude with and cover up the identities of bureaucratic snakes out to damage or destroy a president they despise. No wonder democracy is a declining stock worldwide.

And, yes, they give out Pulitzers for criminal collusion like this.

Read more:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/buchanan/will-the-deep-state-brea...

French president Emmanuel Macron has warned the EU would be “mad” to sign a trade agreement with countries that refused to honor the Paris climate agreement.

BRUSSELS — Macron was speaking a day after the Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, implored Trump to consider “a new trade deal between the US and the EU,” as a way of lowering trade tensions over steel and aluminum tariffs.

Speaking at a conference in Brussels, Macron said that since Trump had indicated US withdrawal from the Paris deal, a new trade deal would undermine clean energy producers in Europe, and project a message of weakness abroad.

Far from bending to the will of the US, “trade agreements should reverse the burden of proof,” Macron said. “They should be a way of spreading our standards. Anyone who signs an agreement with the EU should be committing to put the Paris Agreement into practice…

“We even go beyond our own rules and ask our own economic agents to do the same. Why should we sign a trade agreement with powers that say they don’t want to implement the Paris Agreement? We would be mad [to do so].”

Macron said that the world’s multilateral rules-based trade policy was “threatened by unilateral temptations.”

“I’m not in favour of showing any softness to those who decide to break those rules,” he said. “We can no longer pursue objectives that work against our own [climate] policies inside our own borders.”

EU: ‘No new trade deals with countries not in Paris Agreement’

Doing so would “discourage” Europe’s clean energy investors who might suffer from unfair competition as a result, he added.

Read more:

https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/03/22/macron-eu-mad-do-trade-deal-us-aft...

It seems that what follows is legit despite its spoofed openning...

As of last night, April 9, 2018, satellite thermography had mysteriously recorded tiny patches of ground at Monticello and Mount Vernon, Virginia as well as in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and points scattered throughout the East - Northeast, at temperatures nearing 600°F. The nearly forty red spots in an otherwise black infrared photo were identified as the gravesites of the signers of our United States Constitution. The heat generated, local authorities said, was attributed to the spinning bodies of the interred.

Granted, a silly opening for an article concerning one of the most singularly shameful and stunningly horrific points to date in our national history: Yesterday, most obviously some time shortly after the dropdead deadline wherein Tucker Carlson could have appropriately given it the incredulous sarcasm and scathing criticism it deserved, the FBI raided our president’s attorney’s office and his Park Avenue hotel room. I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT ANY JUDGE IN THIS LAND WOULD HAVE PERMITTED SUCH AN ATROCITY.

In the same style that federal agents might have busted up a still in the 1930s hills of Kentucky, the Monday raid on attorney Michael D. Cohen’s business and residence by Obama’s shadow government seized documents they claim were relevant to Mr. Cohen’s business with our President Donald J Trump, which I always thought was part of an untouchable attorney-client privilege. Nevertheless, as we learned during the Obama regime, if you cross the Forces of Darkness, don’t be surprised if even the IRS winds up at your doorstep. And they criticize Vladimir Putin for his tyranny?

After a year of beating the invented and now completely dead horse of ‘Russian collusion’, this mob-like, “up against the wall!”, intrusion of Cohen’s business and New York City residence was nothing more than headline-grabbing drama and distraction added to the fire that has been built in the attempt to take down our president. The Trump-hating New York Times called the search an “aggressive move” on the part of the Justice Department. They went on to describe President Trump’s entirely justified outrage as his “lashing out” in “an extraordinarily angry response” to more of what President Trump rightly calls a “witch hunt”. I’m sure it was also intended to draw press away from the first flow of what little might be left of Hillary’s incriminating e-mails.

But what most morning-after commentary will miss - as conservative journalists attack and liberal writers praise - the arrogance of the strident and completely interest-conflicted prosecutor Mueller and his attack dogs, Rosenstein, Wray and others, is that if these sub-government thugs don’t bat an eye in strong-arming our President and his attorney like this in broad daylight, what will they do and what are they doing now to John Q Public who dares to criticize, question or oppose their terror?

Very few people are aware that the Department of Homeland Security is just now announcing “officially” putting together dossiers, collecting information, ‘data’, on all ‘journalists’, outspoken writers of all genres, including e-mail commentators to Facebook columnists. Even fewer now remember when the Clintons and liberal congressional and senatorial cohorts wanted to introduce legislation controlling who could ‘qualify’ as a public voice. The deep state is on the move. To them, President Donald J Trump is just a blip on the screen that they will soon remedy.

Read more:

https://canadafreepress.com/article/a-new-low-from-the-deep-state?

Meanwhile (unverified):

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating a $150,000 donation to President Donald Trump’s charity in 2015 from a Ukrainian businessman who has given tens of millions of dollars to Bill and Hillary Clinton, according to a new report.

The donation, from Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk, came after "then-candidate Donald Trump gave a 20-minute speech at a European conference that promoted closer ties between Ukraine and the West," Business Insider reported.

The speech was set up in August 2015 when Doug Schoen, a political consultant for Pinchuk, contacted Trump directly and asked if he would give a speech. Trump reportedly accepted but did not bring up the subject of being paid to make the appearance.

The report states that Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, is alleged to "have called Schoen the next day to ask for a $150,000 fee from Pinchuk in exchange for the talk."

The New York Times reported in 2016 that Pinchuk "has directed between $10 million and $25 million to the [Clinton] foundation," and that he also "lent his private plane to the Clintons and traveled to Los Angeles in 2011 to attend Mr. Clinton’s star-studded 65th birthday celebration."

The Times report also notes that Schoen, who was a former political consultant for Bill Clinton, arranged approximately a dozen meetings with Hillary Clinton's State Department on behalf of or with Pinchuk between September 2011 and November 2012 to discuss political problems in Ukraine.

A January 2017 report from Politico alleged that Ukrainian government officials worked to boost Hillary Clinton and hurt then-candidate Donald Trump by "helping to force Manafort’s resignation and advancing the narrative that Trump’s campaign was deeply connected to Ukraine’s foe to the east, Russia."

Read more:

https://www.dailywire.com/news/29239/breaking-mueller-investigating-150-donation-man-ryan-saavedra?

All this crap, as the US — with the ugly blessings of "Aussie Tony" (Blair, who should be in jail) — are preparing to punish Assad for "gassing his own people" once more, without ANY PROOFS. And Gus would be prepared to say with strong protest that even "if Assad "gassed some terrorists" (for which there are no proofs, as the "reported events in the western rags" are more likely staged by the said terrorists), this so-called redline should not be used as a dangerous unilateral action from the big bully of the planet. This US illegal increment of war on Assad would likely bring WW3 closer to reality.

Has the US president shit for brains? YES.

From Ewen MacAskill — the Guardian's defence and intelligence correspondent. 

Donald Trump ordered an attack on Syria a year ago in response to a chemical attack, resulting in 59 US Tomahawk cruise missiles hitting the Shayrat airbase. 

Given that it failed to deter the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and regime forces from using chemical weapons again, the US president must now decide whether to launch a more punitive strike in the wake of the suspected gas attack in Douma on Saturday.

After the Shayrat attack in April last year, the US claimed to have destroyed 20 planes – described by the defence secretary, James Mattis, as 20% of Syria’s operational air strength – and to have seriously degraded the base. Other reports challenged this, however, saying Syrian aircraft were taking off from the base only hours later.

If Trump needs to send a stronger message this time, one option is to completely destroy Syria’s air force.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/10/destroying-syrias-air-forc...

--------------------------

This fellow Ewen MacAskill is shitting self-inflated shits.

The "White Helmets" who report on the "gassing of the Syrian people" are paid (terrorist) agents like Ahmed Challabi was paid to create informants about "Saddam's weapons of mass destruction" back in 2002. While Challabi was DIRECTLY paid by the CIA, The "White Helmets" are indirectly paid by MI6 that works closely with the disinformation channel of the CIA. Their "information" has been constantly contradicted by real expert analysts and by other witnesses on the ground such as the "Red Crescent" (Muslim Red Cross).

We should know that since 2013, all the "gassing" by Assad of "his" people, has been staged BY THE TERRORISTS or did not happen. But this won't be reported by the Guardian and the western media. These "gassings" were just pretexts for the US to go and bomb Syria. This time, this is more SERIOUS. The Russian responses from a US attack on the government or the airforce of Syria are very limited. So far "restraint" has been the Russian position but for how long. How long before one of the US cruisers or whatever get sunk? 

The only option for the USA, should they wish for peace in the region (unfortunately as the Russians have said many times, the US do not want peace — only shit) is NOT TO ATTACK ANYTHING, not even in "retaliation" for whatever. As the commentators at The Australian Conservative put it: Syria DID NOT ATTACK THE USA. There is no reason for the USA to attack Syria.

Do the Western powers hope to put an end to the constraints of International Law? That is the question asked by the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sergueï Lavrov, at the Moscow conference on International Security [1].

Over the last few years, Washington has been promoting the concept of « unilateralism ». International Law and the United Nations are supposed to bow to the power of the United States.

This concept of political life is born of the History of the United States - the colonists who came to the Americas intended to live as they chose and make a fortune there. Each community developed its own laws and refused the intervention of a central government in local affairs. The President and the Federal Congress are charged with Defense and Foreign Affairs, but like the citizens themselves, they refused to accept an authority above their own.

Bill Clinton attacked Yugoslavia, blithely violating Internal Law. George Bush Jr. did the same by attacking Iraq, and Barack Obama by attacking Libya and Syria. As for Donald Trump, he has never hidden his distrust of supra-national rules.

Making an allusion to the Cebrowski-Barnett doctrine [2], Sergueï Lavrov declared: « We have the clear impression that the United States seek to maintain a state of controlled chaos in this immense geopolitical area [the Near East], hoping to use it to justify the military presence of the USA in the region, without any time limit, in order to promote their own agenda ».

The United Kingdom also seem to feel quite comfortable with breaking the Law. Last month, it accused Moscow in the « Skripal affair », without the slightest proof, and attempted to unite a majority of the General Assembly of the UN to exclude Russia from the Security Council. It would of course be easier for the Anglo-Saxons to unilaterally rewrite the Law without having to take notice of the opinions of their opponents.

Moscow does not believe that London took this initiative. It considers that Washington is calling the shots.

« Globalisation », in other words the « globalisation of Anglo-Saxon values », has created a class society between states. But we should not confuse this new problem with the existence of the right to a veto. Of course, the UNO, while it declares equality between states whatever their size, distinguishes, within the Security Council, five permanent members who have a veto. This Directorate, composed of the main victors of the Second World War, is a necessity for them to accept the principle of supra-national Law. However, when this Directorate fails to embody the Law, the General Assembly may take its place. At least in theory, because the smaller states which vote against a greater state are obliged to suffer retaliatory measures.

La « globalisation of Anglo-Saxon values » ignores honour and highlights profit, so that the weight of the propositions by any state will be measured only by the economic development of its country. However, over the years, three states have managed to gain an audience to the foundations of their propositions, and not in function of their economy – they are the Iran of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (today under house arrest in his own country), the Venezuela of Hugo Chávez, and the Holy See.

The confusion engendered by Anglo-Saxon values has led to the financing of intergovernmental organisations with private money. As one thing leads to another, the member states of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), for example, have progressively abandoned their propositional power to the profit of private telecom operators, who are united in a « consultative committee ».

« Communication », a new name for « propaganda », has become the imperative in international relations. From the US Secretary of State brandishing a phial of pseudo-anthrax to the British Minister for Foreign Affairs lying about the origin of Novitchok in the Salisbury affair, lies have become the substitute for respect, and cause general mistrust.

During the first years of its creation, the UNO attempted to forbid « war propaganda », but today, it is the permanent members of the Security Council who indulge in it.

The worst occurred in 2012, when Washington managed to obtain the nomination of one of its worst war-hawks, Jeffrey Feltman, as the number 2 of the UNO [3]. From that date onward, wars have been orchestrated in New York by the very institution that is supposed to prevent them.

Russia is wondering today about the possible desire of the Western powers to to block the United Nations. If this is so, it would create an alternative institution, but there would no longer be a forum which would enable the two blocks to discuss matters.

Just as a society which falls into chaos, where men are wolves for men when deprived of the Law, so the world will become a battle-field if it abandons International Law.

Translation 
Pete Kimberley

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe addressed the National Assembly on the Syrian issue. Concerning the supposed use of chemical weapons in Douma, which he attributed to Damascus, Edouard Philippe promised a French reaction.

"I mean that the allies of the [Syrian Bashar al-Assad] regime have a special responsibility in this massacre," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told the National Assembly on April 10, citing the alleged chemical attack in Duma, in Eastern Ghouta.

Edouard Philippe also accused Damascus of "violation of the truce" provided for by the UN Security Council. Promising a French "reaction", he said: "This recourse to these weapons [chemical] is not neutral, it says things about the regime and our reaction to the use of these weapons will say things of what we are [made of]."

Read more:

https://francais.rt.com/international/49602-syrie-edouard-philippe-prome...

Gives these French morons une "sucette" (lollipop)...

Donald Trump is preparing to ignite the Middle East and move the world a big step closer to total war. There is a very good chance the corporate mainstream media, accomplices in massive war crimes, will be announcing “breaking news” this evening or night that the U.S., in conjunction with its evil twin Israel that bombed a Syrian air base 24 hours ago, has launched a massive attack on Syria “justified” by a false flag chemical attack on Saturday. That such an expanded and terribly dangerous escalation of the war against Syria, whose ultimate goal is Iran and Russia, should come as no surprise to anyone halfway sentient. 

Open source intelligence has been available for at least 6 weeks that the world is facing a momentous point of no return unless somehow, against all odds, sane voices miraculously intervene to stop this push for world war, which could very well end with nuclear war. But don’t count on it. 

I am sick at heart at the thought of what is coming. When will we ever learn? What follows were warnings shouted out in the only places – alternative media sites devoted to truth – that care to prevent such carnage. Imagine your own continuing timeline, if you can bear to do so. Somehow, some way, we must find ways to awake those Americans asleep to the evils conjured up by their own government before it is too late. I really don’t know how, but can’t resign myself to giving up, for if I do, I give up on humanity, the “humanity” Trump says so glibly is at stake as he prepares to shed more blood.

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2018/04/10/sleepers-awake-we-are-heading-toward...

And we are playing football, etc... having fun...

The point here is that "we" (our media and governments) are stupid and devious enough to find "morality" in the totally unreasonable. Our media are lamentable sheets of shit designed to promote idiocy. Presently, the US place their hope on the probable premise that the "retaliatory steps" taken against their own aggression will be depicted by our media as "inflammatory" and the "others" will wear the can of responsibility, when, as with Iraq, Libya and other "theatres of war", The "GUILT" SHOULD BE THAT OF THE USA and of their minions. Time to speak up and shake the average morons — who I unfortunately find daily have never heard of "false fag events" and trust the lying ink and the lying images on their "information" channels. Little do they know — or more to the point, do not want to know.

Eurocontrol, an EU body responsible for handling air traffic over the continent, has issued a Rapid Alert Notification to flight operators in the eastern Mediterranean, warning them to be ready for NATO rocket launches into Syria.

“Due to the possible launch of air strikes into Syria with air-to-ground and / or cruise missiles within the next 72 hours, and the possibility of intermittent disruption of radio navigation equipment, due consideration needs to be taken when planning flight operations in the Eastern Mediterranean / Nicosia FIR area,” the alert said.

The alert warns pilots to be ready for specific NOTAMs (Notices to Airmen), concerning flight risks and obstacles that may arise.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump said that he was “very strongly, very seriously" considering military action against the government of Bashar Assad over the alleged chemical attack in Douma in Syria on April 7. Trump said that a “major decision” would be taken within the following 24-48 hours.

An air strike was already carried out against a Syrian air base on Monday, although no state has claimed responsibility. Damascus, Moscow and Tehran say that the attack was carried out by Israel from Lebanese airspace.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/423757-syria-strike-alert-eurocontrol/

NATO and the US have no mandate to bomb anything. NONE! Not even a moral high-ground. Their only motivation is more like a sewer political wet rat turd...

Be afraid. Be very afraid. 

That’s a natural reaction to the revelation of Andrew G. McCabe, the former deputy FBI director, that top Justice Department officials, alarmed by Donald Trump’s firing of former Bureau director James Comey, explored a plan to invoke the 25th Amendment and kick the duly elected president out of office. 

According to New York Times reporters Adam Goldman and Matthew Haag, McCabe made the statement in an NBC 60 Minutes interview to be aired on Sunday. He also reportedly said that McCabe wanted the so-called Russia collusion investigation to go after Trump for obstructing justice in firing Comey and for any instances they could turn up of his working in behalf of Russia.  

The idea of invoking the 25th Amendment was discussed, it seems, at two meetings on May 16, 2017. According to McCabe, top law enforcement officials pondered how they might recruit Vice President Pence and a majority of cabinet members to declare in writing, to the Senate’s president pro tempore and the House speaker, that the president was “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” That would be enough, under the 25th Amendment, to install the vice president as acting president, pushing aside Trump.

Read more:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/do-you-believe-in-the-d...

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