The Days Countdown As The Bodycount Rises.

On November 6th 2018 (6/11/18) the US will hold its mid-term elections for Congress. The legislative branch of government.

Almost since their defeat at the 2016 Presidential Election the Democrat Party have been hoping to sweep to power in both houses of Congress at these elections. Mobilising supporters to vote in what they have dubbed a; "Blue Wave."

On September 28th (28/9/18) the World received something of portent of what that Democrat campaign could be like. During both the hearings on the appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court and the annual opening of the United General Assembly.

A Tsunami - an actual Blue Wave - smashed into Sulawesi, Indonesia. At least 2,256 people were killed, 10,679 were seriously injured and more than 200,000 people were left homeless.

No sooner had Judge Kavanaugh been confirmed the Democrats moved onto the next part of their election campaign. Turkey's claims that Jamal Khashoggi had been killed by Saudi Arabia. Something the Democrats attempted to link to US President Trump and the Republican Party.

I covered the Khashoggi story here; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2018/10/shock-news-donald-trumps-gun-shy.html

Although it has somewhat slipped into the background the Khashoggi story is very much active.

The Democrats though had already moved onto the next part of their election campaign. A series of suspicious packages sent across the course of last week.

I covered that here; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2018/10/gunpowder-treason-plotz.html

An arrest was made in the suspicious packages story on Friday (26/10/18). So on Saturday (27/10/18) the Democrats moved onto the next part of their election campaign.

The mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That resulted in the deaths of 11 people. All of them Jewish.

Within US politics the conflict between gun rights and gun control has long been a source of deep political division. The Democrats generally support gun control while the Republicans generally support gun rights.

That means when there is a mass shooting of this type the Democrats can only really gain support while the Republicans can only really lose it.

This was the thinking behind the July 2016 mass shooting in Orlando, Florida. That was an Islamist terror attack directed by a foreign power to influence the 2016 Presidential election in the Democrats favour.

Even the choice of weapon - a Sig Sauer 516 rifle - was intended as a threat to Britain. Whose newly formed armed counter-terrorist police had just adopted the Sig Sauer 516 as their primary weapon.

The Democrats though refused to acknowledge it as an Islamist terror attack. Instead trying to present it as just another example of America's gun violence. They immediately introduced gun control legislation to Congress leading to a high profile confrontation with the Republicans who eventually blocked the passage of the legislation.

The Orlando attack specifically targeted the gay Pulse nightclub in a largely Hispanic area. In pushing for their gun control legislation the Democrats tried wrapping themselves in the flags of gays rights and Hispanic immigration. Two other divisive issues within American politics.

Going back as far as the 2014 mid-term elections and the Black Lives Matter campaign the Democrats have been seeding racial division in order to win votes. Even before I think he became the Republican's Presidential Candidate the Democrats have been trying to portray President Trump as racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic.

On that last point the Democrats don't seem at all bothered by the fact that President Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump is Jewish. As are her children and President Trump's grandchildren.

It should come as little surprise then that the Democrats have immediately tried blaming a shooting at a Jewish place of worship on the rhetoric of President Trump and the Republicans.

The Democrats were also keen to avoid having the suspicious package story being looked at in detail on the Sunday morning political discussion shows. For the simple reason it really doesn't stand up to that level of scrutiny.

For example these supposed pipebombs lack an explosive charge. Which is normally considered a pretty important part of a bomb. As a result most people are describing the packages as a hoax.

The only exception being the FBI. In a press conference on Friday (26/101/18) FBI Director Wray declared clearly that it is not a hoax. That seems to be further political bias on the part of the FBI who don't want to let things like facts spoil the Democrats election campaign.

Also the main trigger for the arrested man, Cesar Sayoc to conduct this hoax is the fact he'd recently been made homeless after being kicked out of his mother's house. His mother is a life-long Democrat and community activist.

One of the things that left me uncomfortable about the suspicious package hoax is that normally Democrat election stunts come with a death toll. I regret not being able to turn that general uneasy feeling into what Pittsburgh police would term; "Actionable Intelligence."

Away from the Democrats domestic election campaign there is a wider, more global significance to Saturday's (27/10/18) shooting.

As it was intended to do Turkey's claims about Khashoggi have boosted the profile and power of Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That new found power was used to Erdogan to call France, Germany and Russia to a summit on Syria held in Turkey on Saturday (27/10/18).

Perversely Erdogan is also able to wield a lot of power over France and Germany due to Turkey's failing economy.

Banks in France, Germany and other parts of the European Union (EU) are remain heavily exposed to Turkish debt. Despite many warnings to disinvest. France and Germany are therefore are really too afraid to tell Erdogan no unless a Turkish economic collapse forces bankers in their countries to do without their bonuses.

Erdogan is also able to wield a lot of power over Russia due to sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and the UK.

Despite being far more significantly involved in the war in Syria than either France or Germany you will notice that the US was not invited too nor attended this summit in Turkey.

The Tree of Life Synagogue was specifically targeted in reference to the 2018 Winter Olympics. These were held in the Republic of Korea (RoK/South).

Almost unavoidably a major theme of the games was the ongoing, nearly 70 year war between the RoK and its northern neighbour. The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK/North).

The South Korean hosts explored this by looking at the way the war has changed something as fundamental as people's religion.

As part of a US led strategy to counter the strict atheism of the DPRK South Koreans have switched from their traditional Animist religions to Abrahamic religions. Although South Koreans have opted for Christianity the oldest Abrahamic religion is Judaism.

Iconography from both the Anamist and Abrahamic religions featured in all of the ceremonies of the games.

As part of the preparation for hosting the games South Korea built an Abrahamic Tree of Life sculpture in the Olympic Park. Both to give to hint of how they intended to approach the issue of the conflict with the DPRK and to highlight the environmental impact of the trees they'd cut down to build the venues.

Another major theme of the games was the efforts by the South Korea's equivalent to the US' FBI - the National Intelligence Service (NIS) - to rig the country's 2012 Presidential election. In favour of Park Geun-hye who went on to win.

Amongst other efforts the NIS declared that foreign hackers were trying to interfere with the election. This allowed them to set up a special cyber taskforce to promote social media messages in support of Park Geun-hye and remove comments critical of her.

A close ally of South Korea this is where US Democrats got their inspiration from to try and rig the 2016 US Presidential election. They declared that Russia was trying to influence the election allowing a special task force to be set up to, amongst other things, monitor social media and spy on the Republican campaign.

Obviously where South Korea's NIS succeeded US Democrats failed. In part because South Korea broke the details of its election rigging scandal just before the 2016 US Presidential Election. Which led to the ouster and imprisonment of Park Guen-hye.

Many in America would have been distracted from the 2018 Winter Olympics by the February 14th (14/2/18) mass shooting in the Parkland area of Florida.

Park Guen-hye is the daughter of South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee who ruled from 1963 until 1979. About 30% of the population of South Korea has the family name; "Park." So you could certainly describe it as a sort of; "Parkland."

The main purpose of the Parkland shooting was to ambush then US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as he visited Turkey. On this visit Tillerson was scheduled to force Erdogan to withdraw his forces from Syria. Particularly the Afrin Canton and Garvaghy Road areas which need to be placed under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF/QSD).

The type of weapon used in Parkland was the Armalite Rifle model 15 (AR-15). "Armalites" is a sort of codeword for the SDF. If it was easy to explain why it wouldn't be a particularly good codeword.

The Democrats response was organise big campaign marches demanding that the Armalites be banned. Needless to say Tillerson's visit to Turkey was not a success for America.

The Squirrel Hill area of Pittsburgh is around 40% Jewish. Exactly like how the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland is around 40% Jewish. The primary weapon used in the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting was also an Armalite Rifle model 15 (AR-15).

As such it was intended as a gesture of support for Erdogan at that day's Syria summit. It was intended to boost his confidence by reassuring him that the Democrats and their desire to ban the Armalites would soon be back in power where they would be able to protect him.

Erdogan is deeply anti-Semitic. A quality he shares with US Democrats. Particularly Louis Farrakhan who had almost an entire section of the 2018 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony dedicated to his hateful rhetoric.

As part of the Khashoggi case Erdogan highlighted how he had tricked the US into getting Israel to release Ebru Ozkan. A Turkish spy who'd been arrested while coordinating violence against Jews in Jerusalem. At the height of the Khashoggi story on October 16th (16/10/18) Erdogan moved to further boost his anti-Semitic credentials by staging an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Ankara.

So 11 dead Jews is the sort of thing that would make Recep Tayyip Erdogan smile.

Also as part of the Khashoggi case Erdogan conducted a terror attack against the Kerch High School in Russia's Crimea region. The was the worst school attack in Russia since the Beslan School Massacre in September 2004.

The Kerch High School shooting has provoked memories of the 1999 Columbine School Shooting in the US. Those same memories were also invoked by the Parkland shooting. Particularly at the 2018 Winter Olympics the Parkland shooting also drew comparisons with the Beslan School Massacre.

So alongside trying to boost Erdogan's confidence the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting was intended to put pressure on Russia at the Syria summit. By reopening some extremely sore old wounds.

If you've been following this blog for a while you will know that I make a point of not working on Saturdays.

The reason for this is particularly with the war in Syria its very easy for me to find myself working 365 days a year. That very quickly results in burn out which stops you from working at all for long periods while you recover. So it is important to force yourself to take at least one day off to give yourself a break.

In most Muslim nations the weekend is Friday and Saturday. In most other nations the weekend is Saturday and Sunday. So I take Saturday off because it is the day when the least amount of things are going on.

I actually drew attention to the fact that I don't like working on Saturday's by working on Saturday October 20th (20/10/18) to cover developments in the Khashoggi story. Then spending the next couple of days complaining about having to work on a Saturday.

Saturday also happens to be the Jewish Sabbath or Shabat. The Tree of Life synagogue shooting occurred during a Shabat services. As a result much of the global coverage made the point that Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath in order to explain why an attack on a Synagogue on that day is so significant.

If you didn't know me well you might get the impression that I don't work on Saturday's because I'm Jewish.

Although I don't see it as a value judgement I should point out that I'm not Jewish. In much the same way as I would like to state for the record that I am not a table. Nor am I an aeroplane.

Despite their screams of; "Nazi!" towards President Trump and his Jewish children and grandchildren it seems US Democrats believe the worst smear you can use against someone is to imply that they might be Jewish.

Worse even than suggesting that they might support gay rights.

Amongst the main themes for discussion at the 2018 Winter Olympics were Hard (military) Power, Soft (cultural) Power and Sharp Power. A relatively new concept which is not yet well defined.

One of the big examples cited was Britain's use of sport, particularly football as a mechanism of Soft Power.

Through match fixing the  English Premier League team Arsenal have been massively promoted in West Africa using their macho sounding nickname; "The Gunners." Britain has used Arsenal's popularity in West Africa to gather intelligence on those countries.

America has recently started to follow Britain's example by trying to promote American Football globally.

This has been led by the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the English Premier League team Fulham Shahid Khan. He recently tried to by the spiritual home of English football, Wembley Stadium to turn it into an American Football stadium. This attempt was so unpopular I'm pretty sure England threatened to invade America in response.

Part of the effort to expand American Football globally saw a game played in London, UK on Sunday (28/10/18). It was between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Philadelphia Eagles. Contrary to what I said yesterday the Philadelphia Eagles are the main rivals of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the local team for the Squirrel Tree area.

That American Football game was played at the same time as the English Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Arsenal. As I've mentioned Arsenal are nicknamed; "The Gunners" while Crystal Palace are nicknamed; "The Eagles."

Like the entire rest of the planet Britain really doesn't understand American football. It certainly doesn't understand the niche area of organising a mourning event for the main rivals of one of the teams playing. While most of the country is more interested in finding out who is going to win out in a battle between the Eagles and the Gunners.

So Britain was quite rattled by the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting. It was already pretty rattled by being left out of the Syria summit in Turkey.

At around 18:40 on 29/10/18 (UK date) I'll pick up Britain's panic after dinner.

Edited around 20:10 on 29/10/18 (UK date) to add above and below;

To settle its nerves Britain responded to the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting with a helicopter crash at the ground of Leicester City Football Club following their match against West Ham United. The helicopter belonged to the Thai billionaire owner of the Leicester City Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha who was killed in the crash.

Along with Arsenal Leicester City are another good example of football being used as a mechanism of Soft Power.

For the 70 years since 1946 Thai society has been dominated by absolute deference to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. In 1987 he was conferred the title; "King Bhumibol the Great." It is absolutely no coincidence that Srivaddhanaprabha's company is called; "King Power" and Leicester City's ground is officially called; "The King Power Stadium."

King Bhumibol had been in poor health since about 2006. In 2015 Thailand began serious preparations for his death and sucession by his far less respected son Maha Bodindradebayavarangkun. He eventually died in December 2016.

During this delicate transition period Leicester City suddenly became a very good football team. Their star striker Jamie Vardy broke the league record for scoring in consecutive games. Then the team won the 2015/16 title despite starting the season as 5000/1 outsiders.

This amazing run by Leicester City made them hugely popular in Thailand. So during this difficult Royal transition suddenly everyone in Thailand wanted to talk to Britain.

It appears what has caused the crash is the failure of the helicopter's tail rotor.

Helicopters work by the main rotor spinning really fast to create high pressure beneath them. This high pressure creates lift allowing the helicopter to fly. The problem is that as it spins the main rotor creates reverse torque. This spins the body of the helicopter in the opposite direction. The tail rotor counteracts this reverse torque effect by pushing sideways in the opposite direction.

When the tail rotor fails the helicopter spins around uncontrollably fast until it inevitably crashes down to the ground.

This effect also rather neatly sums of the story. Rather than making any statement it was intended to grab attention by allowing you to project pretty much any meaning you want onto it.

For example this topic of how helicopters work actually featured at the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Russia.

Many Russian helicopters don't have tail rotors. Instead the solve the problem of reverse torque by using two main rotors. Each spinning in the opposite direction. This coaxial design is made possible by a complex device known as a; "Kamov Gearbox."

People who didn't know this were a bit disturbed to arrive in Russia and see rescue helicopters that looked like they had a vital bit of equipment missing.

In 2013 the popstar Rihanna went on her politically charged Diamonds World Tour (DWT). Although she didn't play any concerts in the country the tour included a secretive visit to Thailand. This was intended as a gift by America to and old ally by giving them special access to and insight to Rihanna.

This backfired on Thailand spectacularly. To the point they staged a military coup to overthrow the government that had accepted America's gift. Nearly five years on that military junta is still in place and people are starting to get restless.

On October 22nd (22/10/18) a Thai rap collective "Rap Against Dictatorship" released the song; "My Country's Got (Prathet Ku Mee) condemning the military junta. Within a matter of hours the video had picked up a million views on YouTube. 

People are now waiting to see what the military junta will do to punish Rap Against Dictatorship. If you told me Thailand's military junta had used a helicopter crash to assassinate Srivaddhanaprabha for criticising them I wouldn't struggle to believe you.

One of the star players of Leicester City's title winning side was  Riyad Mahrez. He has since been sold to Manchester City. Which is owned by the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The same UAE which is allied with Saudi Arabia against Qatar and Turkey.

Despite sharing his name with the capital of Saudi Arabia Riyad Mahrez is actually Algerian.

Jamal Khashoggi was not a journalist nor a liberal reformer. He was a religious extremist and member of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group. He particularly subscribed to the teachings of Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

In 2003 al-Qaradawi wrote a fatwa or religious order declaring that Muslims were duty bound to commit suicide attacks. This led to a massive increase in Islamist suicide attacks including the emergence of female suicide attackers. Such as the Black Widows responsible for the September 2004 Beslan School Massacre.

Khashoggi and al-Qaradawi became close when they fought together in the Muslim Brotherhood's Armed Islamic Group (GIA) during Algeria's brutal 1991 to 2002 civil war.

Between 1954 and 1962 Algeria fought a war of independence against France. This war is still taught in military training as an example of guerrilla warfare and how to counter it. The war was so brutal that France itself describes its use of torture as; "widespread and systematic."

Despite this the brutality of the GIA means that Algerians still refer to the civil war as; "The Dirty War (La Sale Guerre)."

There are a couple of more references I could brainstorm which I'll have to add tomorrow. However as I said there isn't any actual significance to them.

21:20 on 29/10/18 (UK date).

Edited again at around 15:30 on 31/10/18 (UK date) to add;

The Khashoggi case really highlighted the different approaches taking by Arab and western societies. In Arab societies often governments will pay to make problems go away. In western societies there is an expectation that governments will investigate the causes of problems and alter their behaviour accordingly.

In July 2017 Britain was presented with a clear example of the conflict between these Arab and western approaches. In the form of the Grenfell Tower Fire.

Many of those involved in the Grenfell Tower fire were recent immigrants from the Riff region of Morocco.

The Riff region that has always been restive. In 2016 it saw mass Arab Spring style protests following the death of a fish seller. These protests ended when the Moroccan King promised to pay out compensation. Not just to the family of the dead man but to the entire Riff region.

By the summer of 2017 the Moroccan King had failed to make good on this compensation promise. Causing the protests to flare up again.

In what was an extremely stressful time for them I can't help but think Grenfell Tower's recent immigrants got confused about what country they were in and which argument they were having.

One of the questions raised about the Grenfell Tower fire is why helicopters weren't used to rescue people from the roof of the building. The answer to that is quite simple;

Helicopters work by creating high air pressure beneath them which causes lift and flight. Fires create heat which causes air to expand creating low pressure.

So if you'd try to land a helicopter on the roof of Grenfell Tower what you would have ended up with is a helicopter crash. You only need to look at the fireball created by the aviation fuel in Saturday's crash to see that would do nobody any good.

The gruesome detail about Saturday's crash is that helicopter's are actually very good at withstanding crashes. Their main body is designed in an oval shape similar to an egg. This is dissipates the energy from a crash around the cabin. Rather than into the bodies of the people inside the cabin.

So it is highly likely that the five people aboard that helicopter were alive as they burned to death.

As I mentioned in the suspect package story Britain was already quite sensitive about detailed discussions about pipebombs.

On November 5th every year Britain marks the anniversary of the failure of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. This is celebrated with the mass lighting of bonfires and the setting off of fireworks.

Many of the the British towns and villages organising November 5th celebrations would look at the fireball of the helicopter crash and class it as only a small fire.

Here the story can really spin you out into oblivion.

The section of the 2018 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony that featured Louis Farrakhan's vicious anti-Semitism really focused on the US' current obsession with the thought crime of; "Cultural Appropriation."

Such as Farrakhan appropriating the Abrahamic religion of Islam for his hateful Nation of Islam (NoI) cult; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-2018-winter-olympics-opening_17.html

As it never lets anyone forget Britain hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics. The Closing Ceremony of the Para-Olympics focused on the ancient tribes of Britain, their rituals and traditions.

Today (31/10/18) many people, particularly in America, a celebrating one of those ancient rituals. Samhain or Halloween.

Much of the 2018 Winter Olympics focused on the Taoist Wu Xing. These five core elements are said to control everything in the universe. Including the passage of the seasons. Fire being Summer, Water being Winter and so on.

Proving that wherever you go in the World people aren't that different Samhain marks the transition from the Summer season of growing and harvest to the Winter season of darkness and death. Hence all the references to a portal between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead.

Traditionally Samhain marks the start of the dark season with the lighting of bonfires. People then disguise their light faces with the dark ashes of those fires.

So "Blackface" is a Halloween tradition that dates back to long before we knew human skin came in different colours. If that offends black Americans perhaps they should stop trying to culturally appropriate other people's festivals and rituals.

The Gunpowder plot was the first act of resistance against a new breed of puritanical Protestant rulers. By 1642 this resistance had escalated to the English Civil War and by 1653 England doing away with Monarchs entirely to be ruled by Oliver Cromwell.

In order to force everyone to adopt their Protestant religion King James I and his followers appropriated the Samhain tradition of bonfires as a way to celebrate the failure of the gunpowder plot.

Somewhat like how South Koreans have moved to adopt Abrahamic religions over their traditional animist beliefs.

16:10 on 31/10/18 (UK date).