Noteworthy

I suppose I should offer some kind of opinion on the Sanders/Clinton dustup, but to be honest, I can't bring myself to pay attention. So here is a collection of odd stories that I probably should have mentioned earlier.

Blind Gossip is a site which deals in, well, blind gossip. They offered a fascinating political tidbit a couple of days ago:

There was a something that happened behind the scenes of the Republican Presidential Candidate Debate that was even more interesting than what happened on the stage!

A very powerful businessman from Las Vegas wanted a promise from one of the Presidential Candidates, so he made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. The businessman offered to do a very lucrative business deal with the Candidate in the next couple of years… if the Candidate simply reversed their position on a specific topic.

The Candidate agreed (and even talked about the issue during the debate). So now, even if the Candidate loses, they win!

So: Who was the candidate, who was the Businessman, and what was the agreement?

When it comes to the Vegas businessman, only two names come to mind: Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn. Adelson is the likelier prospect.

Which candidate reversed position during the most recent GOP debate? Trump, obviously: He finally ruled out an independent run.

Best cartoon of the week. It illustrates an excellent piece by Pepe Escobar. I have taken the liberty of reproducing it on the right.

2006. Despite what you've been told, that's the year when the plot to overthrow Assad first began to take concrete shape, well before the rebellion was stirred up by outside forces. This info comes from leaked cables which found their way to Wikleaks...

In his appearance on the RT program “Going Underground,” Assange elaborated on the cable’s contents:

“… That plan was to use a number of different factors to create paranoia within the Syrian government; to push it to overreact, to make it fear there’s a coup …”

Assange continued, explaining that the U.S. government sought to make the Syrian government appear weak by causing Assad to overreact to the threat of Islamic extremists crossing into his country.

The cable also details plans to foster sectarian strife in the region and make Iran appear like a larger threat to Assad than it really was, Assange continued:

“In particular, to take rumors that are known to be false … or exaggerations and promote them – that Iran is trying to convert poor Sunnis, and to work with Saudi and Egypt to foster that perception in order to make it harder for Iran to have influence, and also harder for the government to have influence in the population.”

WikiLeaks cables reveal that these plans came from the Israeli government, and show that the U.S. government intended to work with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and Egypt to encourage the breakdown of the Assad regime as a way of also weakening Iran and Hezbollah.

“[I]f Syria sufficiently destabilized, it might be in a position where it can keep the Golan Heights forever, or even advance that territory,” Assange said.

Ghost ships. They are full of dead bodies, and they are showing up in Japan. See here and here -- and then watch the video appended to the end of this post. Apparently, these dead mariners were defectors from North Korea.