By Nathan Barton

Lies and more lies? According to Freedom News Daily, quoting a Reuters story, “Oil fell toward $37 a barrel on Monday, trading within sight of an 11-year low, pressured by excess supply that has more than halved prices since the downturn began in mid-2014. U.S. crude was trading at around parity with global benchmark Brent, having earlier in December risen to a premium for the first time in about a year following the lifting of a 40-year-old ban on most U.S. crude exports.”

Now, I’d like to know just what gives? Why the lies? The reality as reported at Oil Price is seen on the charts updated daily (indeed, hourly) AND at Daily FX, is that crude oil (both West Texas Intermediate or WTI and Brent) dropped to lows WELL below $37 a barrel (WTI was below $35) last week, and have CLIMBED the last several days, including Monday the 28th before noon. WHY the lies? What are we being sold by the mainstream media? What OTHER lies are being told that we are not aware of?

Meanwhile, in Illinois, Chicago cops ONCE again killed two people, including a college student and a 55-year-old mother of five. That worthless piece of garbage and shill for the thug squatting in 1600 PA, Raum Emanuel, the exalted mayor of Chicago, suggests that his cops need better training. IF WE CAN BELIEVE IT, the Washington Post reports: “Beleaguered Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has called for reform after a police officer arriving at the scene of a domestic disturbance fatally shot two people on Saturday, including a 55-year-old mother of five who authorities said was ‘accidentally struck and tragically killed.’ In a statement offering scant detail, Chicago police said they ‘were confronted by a combative subject’ that resulted in ‘the discharging of the officer’s weapon.’ … ‘It is clear changes are needed to how officers respond to mental health crises,’ the mayor said in his statement.”

No, the changes that are needed are FAR more than that: not just getting rid of the Chicago Police Department, but getting rid of the corrupt thugocracy called the government of the City of Chicago. Of course, for all we know, the Chicago PD killed a dozen people this weekend, and they are only admitting to  these.

Lots of news from the Islamic wars this weekend. The New York Times tells us that supposedly “Iraqi” forces have retaken the center of Ramadi from the “Islamic State” (the Caliphate). The story in part says “Iraqi forces said on Monday they had seized a strategic government complex in the western city of Ramadi from the Islamic State after a fierce weeklong battle, putting them on the verge of a crucial victory following a brutal seven-month occupation of the city by the extremist group. The loss of Ramadi, the capital and most populous city of the western Iraqi province of Anbar, would be the most significant in a string of recent defeats for the Islamic State, which has occupied a large stretch of Iraq and Syria since the middle of last year.” (12/28/15)

Notice all the buzz words, especially “the extremist group.” The Caliphate, or Islamic State, is a GOVERNMENT, and it behaves like ALL involuntarily governments: it commits aggression against its own people and against any other government that it cares to. Will the people and businesses of Ramadi be any better off under “Iraqi” government than under “Caliphate” government?

Ask that of the people of the former state of Syria. According to Newsweek, a double bomb attack killed 32 in Homs, a city in Syria, on Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) monitoring group. A car bomb caused the first blast while a suicide bomber detonated the other in the central Zahra district of the city, reported SOHR, a U.K.-based group that tracks the four-year Syrian civil war with an extensive network of sources within the country.”

How do we know this is true, and that it wasn’t a Russian or American or French bomb? Or that these people were even killed? Assuming that they were, do these people of Homs really have any advantage of being under the thumb of the Assad regime, or the Caliphate, or whichever rebel government claims control? None that I can see. Perhaps with NO government – no involuntary government – they could live in relative peace?

Back Stateside, in Texas and near states, Christmas time storms, tornadoes kill at least 43. Storms hit the U.S. South, Southwest and Midwest over the Christmas holiday weekend, unleashing floods and tornadoes that killed at least 43 people, flattened buildings and snarled transportation for millions during a busy travel period. SRN News tells of states of emergency in New Mexico (blizzards; typical Staked Plains weather for the end of December) and Missouri (tornadoes, rain, and floods). The usual suspects are telling us this is all due to “global warming” caused by man, but we know that we cannot believe the usual suspects on anything.

Thanks to Scott for this one from Charisma News which reports that seven christians have been jailed by authorities in Chiapas State of Mexico for refusing to convert to Roman Catholicism. This is presented as illegal (it is), immoral (it is), and strange (it is not). For centuries, Roman Catholic religious leaders working with secular authorities have not only imprisoned people for refusing to convert (or return) to Roman Catholicism, but have tortured and executed them for refusing to convert to Catholicism.

Thousands of my brothers and sisters in Christ have been jailed, tortured, and sometimes killed (including being burned at the stake) for refusing to submit to the Roman Pontiff and his curia and hierarchy, and accept the teachings of Roman Catholicism. Today, thankfully, this is no longer common as it was as recently as 150 years ago, much less 400 or 500 years ago. But when you give government power, and it allies itself with ANYthing else: religion, education, science, big business, you get this kind of thing.