America

Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

We’ve all been there before.

You’re driving along and you see a pair of flashing blue lights in your rearview mirror. Whether or not you’ve done anything wrong, you get a sinking feeling in your stomach.

You’ve read enough news stories, seen enough headlines, and lived in the American police state long enough to be anxious about any encounter with a cop that takes place on the side of the road.

While online spending surged, the overall picture for Thanksgiving weekend spending was more mixed as the traditional “bricks and mortar” retailers continued to struggle. Nevertheless, overall spending was about 4% higher. The National Retail Foundation (NRF) estimated that 174 million Americans shopped online or in stores over the period (Thursday to Monday), versus 164 million the previous year, although the latter excluded Cyber Monday. According to Bloomberg.

Following yesterday's missile launch from North Korea, Senator Lindsey Graham joined CNN's Wolf Blitzer to warn that the U.S. is "headed to war" with the "crazy man" in North Korea "if things don't change."  Here are some excerpts from the interview via RT:

The US will go to war with North Korea "if things don't change," Sen. Lindsay Graham said, acknowledging that "a lot of people would get hurt and killed." Meanwhile, Russia and China have once again urged for both sides to exercise restraint and dialogue.

 

Authored by Federico Pieraccini via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

In the Middle East and beyond, we are witnessing a series of high-level political meetings between dozens of nations involved directly or indirectly in the Syrian situation. It is crucial to understand all this in order to understand the direction in which the region is going and what the new regional order is.

Authored by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

The GOP has become so politically desperate that they might as well enact a two-word statute and be done with it. It would simply read: Tax Bill!