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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was a highly influential German philosopher. To this day his Hegelian Dialectic is a model used by central powers of government to create a problem that causes a reaction most often in the form of a crisis or series of crises, and consolidation of concentrated power results in fewer hands as a consequence of the proposed solution put forth by the same political body that created the problem and crises in the first place. It�s been a highly effective deadly game of deceit that the ruling elite and its neocons have perpetrated on the people to fool and entice them into blindly accepting greater centralized control and authority.
 
This article will demonstrate how New World Order globalists and neocon servants in Washington have consistently employed this repeating cycle of the Hegelian Dialectic consisting of problem (originally called thesis), reaction (anti-thesis) and solution (synthesis) during the present century�s US Empire�s foreign policy. Inasmuch as US Empire along with NATO virtually controls all Western nations as well as nearly all Third World nations, this insidious process is unfolding globally on the geopolitical chessboard with the ultimate goal of a one world government.
 
This presentation first examines how the Hegelian strategy operates through America�s aggressive foreign policy designed to retain its unipolar superpower status at all costs in the face of rising global powers Russia and China. While the globalist/neocon agenda has targeted Eastern powers Russia, China and Iran as foreign enemies, treasonous abuse at home targeting US citizens as the homegrown enemy is but symptomatic of the larger tyrannical pattern gripping all Western nations. A look at these highly disturbing global developments through the Hegelian Dialectic lens starts with 9/11 and the war against Islam.
 
9/11
 
Problem: Perceived international barriers to global hegemony and New World Order tyranny
 
Reaction: Create a bogus terrorist network of Islamic jihadist patsies under the command of a "black sheep" family member belonging to Bush family business partners the bin Ladens and then pull off [albeit half-ass] on 9/11 the world�s largest false flag event in human history
 
Solution: Neocons� �forever war on terror� justifying invasions and protracted occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, NATO bombing of Libya, deployment of al Qaeda/ISIS as nation destabilizers committing Western state sponsored terrorism as well as proxy war allies used for regime change purposes in Syria, Iraq, Libya and beyond; dismantling the US Constitution and civil liberties in Western nations in the name of national security
 
The increasingly pervasive cycle of problem, reaction and solution has been deployed over and over again as the elite�s twenty-first century pathway to New World Order tyranny. The ruling elite's all too predictable Hegelian formula has been around a very long time, but its use in recent years has been stepped up like never before, and its biggest application is 9/11. Key neocons that were instrumental policymakers under Bush 1 showed up again like gangbusters in the Bush 2 regime. With George W. their simpleton front man, and VP Cheney as their fiendishly evil mastermind along with the likes of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, his Deputy Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and others, just prior to stealing their first presidential election, their think tank Project for a New American Century (PNAC) released in September 2000 their infamous white paper entitled �Rebuilding America�s Defenses.� It was their megalomaniacal blueprint plotting the US Empire�s global takeover starting with their "new Pearl Harbor." As longtime members of the ruling elite, they collectively had identified and targeted their number one problem - perceived barriers to their New World Order, the same one their former boss George senior kept mouthing. From their PNAC thesis they were able to calculatingly create their 9/11 anti-thesis designed to blame the identified problem as the primary cause of their fabricated 9/11 crisis, then immediately follow up with their proposed solution - their "endless war on terror" that would fix their engineered crisis "global terrorism."
 
By sinister design, this forever do-loop dynamic promulgated this century�s geopolitical chessboard chaos through both today�s US foreign as well as domestic policy. As the neocons' most significant illustration of the Hegelian Dialectic in action, their PNAC agenda for overcoming any and all perceived barriers that could potentially obstruct their world dominance plan was solved by 9/11 as their reactionary crisis. Increasing and maintaining global hegemony as the world�s sole superpower would be their solution leading to their New World Order. The PNAC operational plans called for 9/11 as their required precursor to then rush through their already written Patriot Act destroying citizens' civil rights and privacy. The Authorization for Use of Military Forces Act gave the wartime president dictatorial war powers waging preemptive war that in January this year was upgraded to unlimited war powers. Dictator Obama never needs Congressional approval to make war at any time anywhere in the world in violation of all prior checks and balances, all in the name of their declared �endless war on terror.�
 
Thus, less than a month after the 9/11 attack, the pre-9/11 planned invasion of Afghanistan was launched. As an occupying force for the last decade and a half, US troops are still supposedly fighting the Taliban now joined by both al Qaeda and ISIS. Of course the true reason for America's longest running war in history has everything to do with the precious natural resources of a trillion dollars' worth of vast mineral deposits, underground natural gas and oil reserves and the world�s largest heroin production that the profiteering US government controls with its illegal international drug smuggling operation. While the Taliban enemy and its terrorist partners control most of the countryside, the 10,000 US troops still stationed there are clueless as to their combat mission, a familiar theme in all of America's past war defeats. Fifteen years of endless war in Afghanistan is just part of the reason why 223 out of the last 240 years America�s been at war killing mostly dark and yellow-skinned foreigners somewhere on the planet 93% of the time, up to 30 million since WWII alone).
 
On the very same day of the 9/11 attacks, the neocons were already conning Americans into believing that a bearded Saudi bad boy who in actuality was dying from kidney disease while camping out in an Afghan mountain cave commanding a worldwide terrorist network (hence al Qaeda means data base or network) actually ordered 19 (15 of whom were/are fellow Saudis, seven turned up still alive) box-cutting, boozing, coke snorting Islamic jihadists to seize control of four commercial jet airliners on the one day America's national air defense was ordered to stand down by Cheney, crashed down the two tallest buildings in the world in physics-defying, vaporized freefall, then flew another plane cutting a missile-sized hole into the Pentagon and finally flew a fourth into a faked non-crash site in a remote Pennsylvania field.
 
And all this came after the CIA had trained and financed Osama and his crew twenty years earlier as US proxy war allies to help bring down the Soviet Empire in the �empire graveyard� of 1980�s Afghanistan and again the following decade helping to balkanize Yugoslavia into a half dozen broken pieces. In actuality the terrorists have been secret US proxy war allies for almost four decades. Talk about a con job! But they were just getting started.
 
Right after 9/11 the next order of business for a full year and a half was conning America into believing former longtime US ally Saddam Hussein was packing WMD�s and terrorist ties in a bogus all-out campaign to justify the invasion of Iraq. It later came out in a 2007 General Wesley Clark interview that the neocon grand plan for America in their New World Order Century had already mapped out a regime change schedule to take down 7 sovereign nations in 5 years. Aside from Afghanistan they were already in the process of invading, Clark announced:
 
We�re going to take out seven countries in 5 years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.
 
This super aggressive, highly illegal, morally despicable, thoroughly brutal regime change foreign policy is still being faithfully followed to the T by Obama. After all, Republican or Democrat, the same neocons in charge back in 2001 are still calling the shots in 2016 and Syria and Iran remain their unfinished business.
 
Enemy Senator Paul Wellstone
 
Problem: Senator Wellstone posed a serious threat as major opposition leader against Bush-Cheney's Iraq invasion and formation of Homeland Security Department
 
Reaction: Assassination made to appear an accident
 
Solution: Implicit message of intimidation and threat effectively silencing other opposing Congress members; successful campaign to win support for March 2003 US invasion of Iraq, regime change and predatory rape and pillage of world�s second largest oil producer; implementation of new Department of Homeland Security masquerading to �safeguard� American public from terrorism but actually creating multibillion dollar security state promoting and enforcing draconian counterterrorism laws leading to increasing centralized authoritarian government control and New World Order
 
Minnesota Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone was a man of integrity who was among the few politicians openly and adamantly opposing the Iraq invasion as well as the creation of the US version of Gestapo-land Security. As a fearless populist leader he�d been a constant thorn in the side ever since then President George H. W. Bush responding to the junior senator�s uncomfortable questions at a reception asked, �Who is this chickenshit?� Years later as the only senator up for reelection who voted against the Iraq War when Democrats held just a one seat edge over the Republicans in the Senate (with one independent caucusing with Democrats), his thorny side made him the #1 GOP target. With the Karl Rove led Republican Party just one seat away from gaining Republican control over the US Senate, Wellstone�s death gave his Republican challenger Norm Coleman the 49-49 split and, as the President of the Senate, Cheney�s tie breaking vote would deliver the GOP 50-49 advantage needed to steamroll yet more tax cuts through for the rich, unending bankers� wars and a never seen before boom for the military-security industrial complex. Again, motive and means tilt heavily towards assassination. The facts make it more than probable.
 
A month prior to the November 2002 election Vice President Cheney had arranged a meeting with Wellstone, threatening him with grave consequences should he vote against the preplanned Iraq invasion. A few days later speaking to a group of war veterans, Wellstone publicly recalled Cheney�s threatening words:
 
If you vote against the war in Iraq, the Bush administration will do whatever is necessary to get you. There will be severe ramifications for you and the state of Minnesota.
 
Then just days after that, 11 days prior to the midterm election and a year to the exact day after the deadly anthrax pushed Patriot Act victory, on October 25th Paul Wellstone, his wife and daughter along with three staffers and two pilots all died in an extremely suspicious plane crash. The FBI was at the crash site within 90 minutes, indicating they�d left their Minneapolis office before the �accident� at about the same time Wellstone�s plane was just taking off that morning, indicating pre-knowledge.
 
Additionally, the NTSB as the national agency that normally takes the lead role investigating all US plane crashes suddenly wasn�t. The FBI moved in ahead immediately proclaiming just another bad weather accident. Yet all on the ground witnesses and reports disagree, from pilots landing at the destination airport just two hours prior to the Wellstone flight to the airport manager who less than an hour after the crash was himself flying over the crash site. The plane considered a Rolls Royce among small planes was in tiptop shape and the two pilots steeped in skilled experience. As the feds� rogue cops for go-to cover-ups, as in 9/11 and the anthrax attacks the year before, and the 1993 World Trade Center and 1995 Oklahoma City bombings, the FBI has a long shady history of leaving its corrupt dirty fingerprints all over these well documented false flag, history changing events.
 
A couple of brave Democratic House members anonymously stated that they believe Wellstone was murdered. In one Congressman�s words:
 
I don't think there's anyone on the Hill who doesn't suspect it. It's too convenient, too coincidental, too damned obvious. My guess is that some of the less courageous members of the party are thinking about becoming Republicans right now.
 
 
Having played ball (and still playing in some respects) with this current crop of reinvigorated old white men, these clowns are nobody to screw around with. There will be a few more strategic accidents. You can be certain of that.
 
A number of other Democratic politicians at a 2 to 1 margin to Republicans have also incurred mysterious deaths  holding �unpopular� views just ahead of hotly contested elections. Two years earlier while traveling in Colombia Senator Wellstone had already experienced one known attempt on his life when a bomb planted enroute from the airport was discovered. Since that plot failed, he was then sprayed with the highly toxic poison glyphosate. As a longtime critic of the CIA and covert operations, Wellstone was targeted for assassination in both Colombia and in Minnesota by the masters of mayhem, murder and deceitful cover-ups - the FBI/CIA Criminals-In-Action at the behest of mastermind Cheney.
 
So far in our two-tiered justice system, murder pays off for those high up on the psychopath food chain like Cheney, the Bushes and Clintons. Renowned investigative reporter Seymour Hersh exposed Cheney�s �executive assassination ring.� Cheney used the CIA as well as the military Joint Special Operations Command as his personal army of hitmen reporting directly to him. If the neocons can live with themselves for murdering 3000 Americans on 9/11, they certainly never lose sleep over a few more targeted eliminations that include the genocidal 4 million Muslim bloodbath caused by the Bush crime family wars.
 
The heavy-handed Bush-Cheney push for Iraq War and a DHS congressional vote prior to their 2003 invasion cast enormous high stakes in the Senate. Then add the known history of contempt from former CIA director Bush, the Cheney threat just days prior to Wellstone�s death, a slew of brazenly contradictory crash site anomalies, and the exposed murderous means used to pass the Patriot Act and the 9/11 false flag tragedy the year prior, all of this circumstantial evidence taken together strongly points to yet more diabolical skullduggery perpetrated by Skull & Bones criminals against humanity.
 
The neocons grabbed the Hegelian solution they needed for waging unlimited war in the name of terrorism anywhere in the world while simultaneously at home merging FEMA into their newly created Homeland Security tasked with stripping away the rest of America's constitutional liberties in the name of �national security.� In its first dozen years alone, deep state�s gluttonously monolithic DHS cancer has metastasized into the third largest federal department boasting near a quarter million fulltime employees. By hook, crook and murder the Cheney-Bush gang in 2003 got what they�d been wanting and plotting for years, two concurrent never-ending wars in the Middle East and the monstrous apparatus Homeland Security whose purpose is making war against the American people. Sadly the rest of the Western vassal nations play follow the leader.
 
This tried and true Hegelian strategy has also been singularly utilized to deal with the identified problem of various other perceived threats to US global unipolar hegemony. American Empire�s relentless efforts to isolate and weaken targeted international enemies Russia, China and Iran through propagandized demonization and manufactured crises illustrate yet more examples of the Hegelian Dialectic in action.
 
Enemy Russia
 
Problem: Russia�s emerging world power threatens US Empire �full frontal dominance� hegemony
 
Reaction: Portray a demonized Putin in Crimea and eastern Ukraine as a threat to global peace and stability
 
Solution: Lead all Western nations imposing economic sanctions on Russia, pressure oil-producing nations like Saudi Arabia to keep oil/gas supply glut high and prices exceedingly low to hurt Russia�s #1 export (along with Iran�s and Iraq�s), seek new pipeline developments to supply Europe, cutting off Russian export revenue and continue turning Russia�s neighbors into anti-Russian, pro-NATO-EU-US puppet allies with continued nuclear missile installation aimed directly at Russia (and Iran) as part of aggressive US foreign policy leading to WWIII
 
The $5 billion spent by Hillary and Nuland�s NGO�s used to illegally overthrow the sovereign Ukraine government in February 2014 was the pivotal solution to the identified problem of Russia�s growing regional power once democratically elected Ukraine President Yanukovych in November 2013 rejected US-EU-NATO pressures to join the anti-Russian bandwagon. As soon as he was removed from power fleeing to Moscow and the US promptly installed its corrupt, neo-Nazi puppet regime as its neocon solution to its Russian problem, the predominantly ethnic Russian Crimean citizens voted overwhelmingly to be annexed by Russia and soon ethnic Russians living in eastern Ukraine voted for independence. Putin�s decisive military move to protect his strategically located Black Sea Russian naval port in Sevastopol suddenly materialized as a newest neocon problem.
 
Putin�s justified defensive response to Western aggression was immediately seized upon as the next identified problem falsely spun by Empire and its European vassals as naked Russian aggression posing an international threat to global peace and stability. Reaction manifested as swift �morally justified� economic sanctions against Russia and nonstop propaganda demonizing Putin as the next targeted US enemy in order to unilaterally engineer cold war 2. With US shale gas and new gas/oil pipeline routes designed to eliminate EU�s 30% dependence on Russia to meet its energy needs, along with isolating Russia, (China and Iran), there you have the core basis of US foreign policy towards the Russian alliance.
 
When last fall at the UN Putin abruptly upended America�s fake war on terror by exposing Obama�s lies, and then proceeded to kick ISIS ass in Syria at the sovereign leader Assad�s request, US Empire�s rigged chessboard strategy was thoroughly discombobulated. And with global hegemony at stake, predictably the US neocon machine elected not to align with Russia�s assault against the world�s biggest terrorist organization. But in its typical hypocritically bombastic way, the US has resumed its regime change mission to balkanize the world still focusing on Syria as its pet project. Emboldened by Putin�s partial withdrawal since March, Kerry�s ultimatum demanding a month ago that Assad must propose his plan for a transition government by August or else suffer the consequence pretty much says it all.
 
As of late the US backed �moderate� opposition rebels that all along have been closely aligned with al Nusra, the al Qaida affiliate in Syria, have been taking a hit, targeted in recent Russian air strikes much to Washington�s chagrin. After reclaiming ancient Palmyra in March and effectively cutting off the ISIS supply line to the Turkish border, the next strategic objective remains regaining control over Syria�s war ravaged largest city Aleppo. And on this most decisive siege, Bashar al-Assad just made this fatalistic if not prophetic statement:
 
Aleppo will become graveyard for foreign-sponsored mercenary-terrorists: any political solution to the conflict must lead to the annihilation of terrorism, otherwise no resolution will work.
 
Meanwhile in Iraq, Shiite militia and Iraqi forces are making strides closing in on a major campaign to retake the embattled ISIS controlled city of Fallujah. Overall, according to the Pentagon (which of course is not exactly the most credible source), ISIS has lost 40% of its territory in Iraq and 11% of its ground in Syria. Though concrete gains in recent months by the real anti-terrorist fighters in both Syria and Iraq have forced the US to somewhat modify its tactical mission in the region (i.e., not so flagrantly and out in the open can Empire protect and defend its terrorist proxy allies), make no mistake the old divide and rule strategy still dictates that US-Israeli hegemonic interests keep the various Muslim factions in the Middle East (primarily the 85% Sunni majority vs. Shiite minority) at war with each other and thereby permanently remain in a fragmented state of weakened disunity. So the fundamental MENA battle lines are generally drawn along the exploited religious divide with Russia supporting the Shiite majority (or near even split) in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Gaza Palestinians while the US Empire-NATO-Israel axis-of-evil throws its divisive weight behind the Sunni majority nations Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan and Egypt.
 
Supporting renewed efforts to stoke the recent violence in eastern Ukraine comes with the usual lies. An all-out propaganda war convinces the West that Putin is leading the insurrection in the Luhansk and Donetsk region in a ruthless drive to expand his power westward into Europe reestablishing another Russian empire. This paranoia has Sweden ready to become the latest convert to NATO. Meanwhile, per the Transparency International�s annual Corruption Perceptions Index, US-NATO-EU axis is backing the most corrupt government in Europe that has intentionally dragged its heels implementing the Donbas elections per its Minsk accord agreement. So what does the chocolate oligarch president do to combat his nation�s soaring graft and corruption problem? Under international pressure to reduce this rampant epidemic in Ukraine, last month President Poroshenko appointed a political crony with zero law experience to the position of prosecutor general after rewriting the law that specifically prohibits appointees with no legal training to such a post. Meanwhile, fed and led by Empire of Chaos, this fascist Nazi nation just keeps churning out an endless cycle of escalating violence in blatant violation of every broken ceasefire agreement made. Like Israel in Gaza and the West Bank, Kiev has been given the neocon greenlight to continue its ethnic cleansing operation in eastern Ukraine.
 
And like clockwork again this last month the daily death toll has been rising now at its highest level since last summer. In the wake of the recent surge of violence, a large water treatment plant employing 127 engineers that supplies the precious life resource to 400,000 civilians is caught in Kiev's artillery fire. If the facility takes a direct hit, chlorine and other deadly chemicals could cause a humanitarian disaster.
 
Because US Empire browbeat its European vassals into submission adopting sanctions against Moscow that are hurting Europe nearly as much as Russia, with the EU decision scheduled this month to renew them or not, nations like Italy and Hungary are expressing a desire for sanctions to be lifted for sorely needed trade with Russia. But already under neocon pressure, emphatic calls are being voiced to retain the sanctions due to scapegoating Putin for not doing enough �to honor� the Minsk agreement to lower the violence amongst the eastern separatists. Putin�s been placed in a double bind as it�s only natural if aggressors are attacking you, your family and home, which is the case for residents in the Donbas region, in self-defense you will fight back. Clearly it�s the US backed Nazi Kiev government and its army that are the true villains. But the US led West�s blindly obedient support continues pounding the war drums while violating last year�s Mink II accord (not to mention international law). The West continues covertly sending Kiev a steady flow of Special Forces advisers, arms and war supplies. In the meantime, the fighting is ramping up again with over 9,000 dead - many civilian - in the last couple years. This conflict is yet another mired, bloody, made-in-the-USA mess of disastrous proportions.
 
Another recent hotbed of proxy war violence fueled by Empire�s complicit support is Azerbaijan�s failed April fools invasion of Armenia�s Nagorno-Karabakh. CIA and Nuland�s NGO quest for worldwide �color revolution� were quick to once again to resurface fanning the flames in Yerevan destabilizing the volatile South Caucasus creating one more Putin headache. Western Azeri oil interests fuel this planned century old ethnic purge.
 
The recent unprecedented NATO troop buildup along Russia�s border and the latest nuclear warhead missile deployment in Romania are yet two more illustrations of this relentless assault on global stability aimed at destroying Russia. Empire�s predatory policy is to instigate war along as much of Russia�s 12,000 mile doorstep as is sinisterly possible. Nonstop NATO war games amassing record numbers of troops at the Russian border (31,000 next month) feed the ongoing hysterical lies that Putin�s about to invade a NATO member nation. Last month the US launched its European Ballistic Missile Shield in Romania and is already busily working on the next batch in Poland.
 
In terms of the Hegelian reaction and solution to US Empire�s inevitable loss of unipolar power due to the shifting West to East bipolar balance of power, neoconned US-NATO is frantically overcompensating. Unilaterally renewing an aggressive arms race is part of the reckless suicidal policy repeatedly baiting Putin into reacting that will lead to the self-justified trigger igniting World War III and preemptive nuclear strikes against Moscow and/or the Middle East. Of course Empire�s deadly provocative agenda is timed perfectly as sleight of hand diversion away from the impending demise of the US dollar that in turn will set into motion the domino effect that collapses the entire global house of cards economy.
 
Enemy China
 
Problem: China�s growing power in the world threatens US unipolar hegemony
 
Reaction: Portray China as a hostile aggressor militarily claiming territories deemed not theirs, stealing US trade secrets, dangerously violating US national cyber security and with BRICS economic alliance and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank leading global movement to drop US dollar as standard international currency and weaken US dominance
 
Solution: Show China who the real global hegemonic boss is with Asian pivot, justifying expansion of US military and economic presence intended to bolster unipolar power in Asian Pacific with both TTP and more US military bases-naval ports springing up in Asia ultimately intended to isolate and weaken China
 
Repainting China as the identified Hegelian problem of a renewed cold war Communist enemy and growing threat to peace in the Asian Pacific has concurrently manifested on multiple fronts - a fierce currency war, an equally intensive cyberwar, a trade war and soaring tensions geopolitically and militarily in disputed waters mostly in the South China Sea. China along with Russia have spearheaded the global drive to drop the rigged game of the US dollar as international currency. With the ultimate goal to replace the dollar with the Yuan backed by a gold standard, China and Russia both have been stockpiling vast amounts of gold and been the leaders establishing the economic BRICS alliance with other emerging bigtime players.
 
China�s also leading the global way dumping the US debt with its US Treasury bonds, joined by governments around the world now at an unprecedented, frenzied record clip. In January alone foreign governments and central banks unloaded $57.2 billion and as of March this year a phenomenal total of $225 billion�s been cashed in since mid-2015. The entire world sees the writing on the wall.
 
Despite threats and warnings from Washington, last year China�s recently opened Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank saw all of America�s closest allies clamoring to become founding members, leaving the US behind and out in the cold. Though China�s economy has slowed within the stalled, stagnating global system, with America�s in freefall, as a result, China has now eclipsed the United States as the most powerful economic nation in the world. In its self-aggrandized exceptionalism, century old arrogance, ruthless world domination and parasitical global exploitation, the once global kingpin can barely face this harsh and disturbing reality. But then since as treasonous globalists they never had any allegiance to America anyway, it�s why the neocons and their puppet masters are so recklessly and pathologically acting out now as they push humanity off their doomsday cliff. They know their jig is up.  
 
A half decade ago Beijing busted Washington for sending Google to spy on China. So the hypocritical neocons launched their propaganda war accusing the Chinese of stealing major industry trade secrets and hacking into sensitive national security files, exposing the biggest cybersecurity breach in US history. Last summer the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced that confidential files and private information that included social security numbers and fingerprints belonging to 21 million government workers were stolen. Also last year the NSA chimed in disclosing that during this last half decade, Chinese hackers have committed over 600 successful attacks on US government and businesses. What the feds won't disclose is the probable greater number of US cyber attacks on China.
 
Then a month after the OPM attack came the August 12th lethal Tianjin China explosion that left 173 dead and an apocalyptic sized crater lake at a demolished chemical storage site as suspected immediate US tit-for-tat payback. China the day before the blast had just announced its devalued currency to weaken the US dollar. Additionally, the fiery explosion brightly visible from outer space was speculated to be caused by a US launched pulsar weapon from the upper atmosphere that may have been intended to take out China�s supercomputer located just a kilometer away from the blast that sustained only partial damage. A series of explosions immediately followed Tianjin at another chemical site in a nearby Chinese city as well as at a US weapons depot in Japan.
 
Upping the hostilities in this undeclared US-China war, after initially including China in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) NWO trade deal, the Obama regime reversed its decision to overtly exclude the Asian giant from the dozen nation agreement as part of its �Asian pivot,� accurately taken by Beijing as yet another shot across the bow by US Empire in its multipronged attacks against China. This willful exclusion not to be invited to the party of 12 is a big deal considering the dozen invited countries comprise 40% of the world�s GDP and 26% of the world�s trade.
 
On the military front, deliberate provocative acts by US Empire beginning last October with intrusive US naval warships now repeated three times have intentionally patrolled within the 12 nautical mile limit of China�s built up islands being militarized as defense outposts in the South and East China Seas. Clearly the propaganda war is rife with false US claims geared to ramp up tensions as part of its undeclared war.
 
This week�s latest incident piggybacks off of last week�s, both involving US Air Force reconnaissance planes caught spying too close to China�s coastline where strategic submarine and military bases are located. With two alleged �close encounters� in as many weeks, headlines from the mainstream rags are all abuzz accusing Chinese jets of �unsafe intercepts� �threatening US intel jet,� clearly depicting China once again as the obvious aggressor. Washington insists the spy planes were merely minding their own business, benignly on �routine patrol� in international airspace. Beijing officials maintain that their aircraft were simply doing their legit job protecting Chinese coastal airspace in the East and South China Seas. Had roles been reversed, the US military wouldn�t tolerate Chinese planes spying so close to US sea and air bases along US coastline and immediately the warmongering DC crowd would be declaring it an act of war.
 
These events are simply propagandized and hyped up to once again make China the bad guy aggressor in order to justify America�s massive militarization in Pacific Asia. The Philippines has developed defense pacts with both Japan and Vietnam. US lifted an arms ban with Hanoi and is now peddling war materials and an expanding US military presence in Vietnam. South Korea is building a new naval base on Jeju Island that will be shared with the US Navy. That�s in addition to the near 30,000 troops already stationed on the peninsula since the Korean War ended almost two thirds of a century ago. But then US Empire boasts a global military occupation of over 1,000 military bases in nearly 150 countries spread to every corner of the globe.  
 
An expanded US military presence as part of Obama�s 2011 �Asian pivot� was developed to counter China�s growing military and naval strength. Meeting this ambitious imperialistic challenge includes building military bases in Palau, an island nation east of Philippines; signing a 10-year pact in 2014 with the Philippines for yet more bases; an enormous presence of 26,000 troops (near half of the total in Japan) on Okinawa despite mounting local opposition where residents contend they�re living in a US colony; transferring 4,800 Marines from Okinawa to the US possession Guam entails building a new base; and more military access for training and fire range activities in the Mariana Islands (also US owned territory) again despite the locals� objections. The growing negative impact on the indigenous human populations, violating their national sovereignty and democratic rights extends many fold to soaring levels of pollution and environmental degradation of pristine natural island habitats in the face of large scale military occupation and operations. Of course Empire could care less about these concerns when countering the perceived threat of a rising China that's become a neocon fixation.
 
Last weekend US and Chinese officials met at an international security conference in Singapore to ostensibly discuss mutual issues. Neocon Defense Secretary Ashton Carter confronted China on its militaristic �expansive moves� in the Pacific:
 
There is growing anxiety in this region, and in this room, about China�s activities on the seas, in cyberspace, and in the region�s airspace.
 
While the AP headline reads �US Defense Secretary Offers Closer Security Ties to China,� reading between the lines of Orwellian doublespeak, it�s actually the �same old, same old,� accusing your enemy of all the things you falsely deny you�re doing. Be it regarding either Russia or China, America�s actions speak far louder than their lies. The pathological devils controlling the US government are gearing up for war.
 
These latest chessboard maneuvers are all timed perfectly to coincide with this month�s UN Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling at The Hague on a US backed Philippines case contesting China�s territorial claims. Everything the US does has a secret yet not so hidden agenda. The neocons� Modus Operandi is to calculatingly invent crises making shit up to win the propaganda war used to justify their increasing aggressions, ultimately designed inevitably to lead to war. But the Empire�s deceptive rationale using �free navigation� or �international airspace� or �self-defense� as their excuses cannot stand up to the scrutiny of truth. Behind all these flimsily disguised justifications, the bottom line is the US is deploying its Pacific Naval Fleet and Air Force to ensure that Empire can control all Pacific maritime wartime waterways to potentially intercept and interdict China�s vital imported cargo lanes flowing from the Middle East and Africa.
 
Similar to Russia, Obama�s Asian pivot has been motivated to surround China with hostile neighbors, both on land and at sea. Thus, the US is behind Japan�s unparalleled military buildup and political squabbling over disputed regional islands with the Philippines, Vietnam and South Korea. The Pacific Naval Fleet poses increasing pressures within the maritime region to control the East and South China Seas as well as the critical narrow Strait of Malacca as the chokepoint bridging the Indian and Pacific Oceans. More than half of all the world�s tonnage passes through these waters as well as one third of all maritime traffic worldwide. 80% of Japan�s oil and 39% of China�s move through the South China Sea from the Middle East.
 
To compound this geopolitical importance are enormous oil and gas deposits buried in these sea contested passages. Hence, every nation in the region is staking claim on the islands sprinkled throughout the East and South China Seas. China has laid claim to about 90% of the South China Sea but Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei are all staking ownership of islands as well, most having built structures with militarized defenses. The US is challenging China�s construction of added land mass built on reefs and rocks as artificially invalid. Thus the US Navy refuses to recognize the 12 mile territorial limit around the Chinese occupied Spratly Islands. China has already announced that it does not recognize Hague Tribunal�s jurisdiction over the island claim, insisting on direct bilateral negotiations with Philippines as its only option to resolve the conflict.
 
The potential for future military conflict especially over drilling rights is only growing more intense and fiercely contested. As the world policeman and hegemonic kingpin, the United States justifies its growing military presence as a counterbalance to China. But don�t be fooled by any benevolent motivation, it�s purely self-serving as all those nations challenging China are already in Empire�s back pocket. More Rockefeller oil thievery is a done deal here and the US military�s ready to go to war to make sure. Prospects for a peaceful resolution to this rising conflict and competition over precious resources holding such critical geopolitical significance globally appear extremely dim in view of Empire�s unwillingness to live in a bipolar world. The growing number of aggressive US moves is clearly intended to provoke a direct confrontation with China that in contrast is merely exercising legitimacy to defend its security and self-interests as a regional power. Meanwhile, the US neocons are determined to maintain Empire�s unipolar hegemony at all cost, refusing to share power and control with its two greatest rivals Russia and China. Thus, the Western elite has already made the unthinkable, insane decision to instigate an unwinnable global war against nuclear-armed Eastern powers risking the lives of all 7.4 billion of us humans on this planet.
 
Enemy Iran
 
Problem: Iran becoming a rival regional power in the Middle East threatening to unite Shiite Muslims could derail US-Greater Israel Project�s agenda for expanding hegemony through Arabic divide and rule strategy
 
Reaction: Continue to falsely accuse Iran of building nuclear weapons, supporting terrorism, blaming 9/11 on Iran, renege on Iran-P5 nuke deal to maintain economic sanctions and frozen assets, smooth over ruffled Israeli relations by rewarding Israel with biggest military aid handout in US history, justifying continued support of Saudi-Israeli genocidal war against Yemen; portray Iran as aggressor when US Navy ships trespassed into Iran�s territorial waters
 
Solution: Thwart and weaken Iran�s growing regional political, economic and military strength, through propaganda keeping Iran an international pariah while maintaining status quo US-Israeli-Saudi hegemony leading to regime change in both Syria and Iran and a broken Russian alliance with subsequent minimal regional influence
 
As early as 1974 the United States was already plotting the future overthrow of their faithful ironfisted puppet the Shah of Iran. Like South Vietnam�s first Prime Minister Diem before him and Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi and Hosni Mubarak after him, the US Empire has a long checkered history of using despotic benefactors of CIA induced regime changes as their trusted bloody tyrants for years only to at some point later be discarded and often assassinated. In 1979 it was Iran�s dictator Shah�s turn and the Islamic Revolutionary Republic was spawned led by the first Ayatollah Khomeini returning from exile as Supreme Leader followed in 1989 by the second Khomeini presently governing the nation.
 
Iranians still remember the US led coup responsible for deposing their democratically elected Prime Minister Mosaddegh in 1953 after he had championed nationalizing Iran�s oil, wresting it away from the monopolistic company soon named British Petroleum (yep, the same BP responsible for America�s largest oil spill in the Gulf nearly six decades later). Plotting revenge, the British MI6 and CIA teamed up to overthrow Masaddegh, returning Iran to monarchy and the Shah�s 26-year reign of terror killing thousands of innocent Iranians. The Shah�s infamous secret police was trained and run by CIA. For more than a quarter century the Shah and the Rockefellers stole billions in oil riches from the fourth largest oil producer while the citizens of Iran languished in relative poverty and violently brutal oppression.
 
Ever since the 1979 revolution, punctuated by the 444-day American hostage crisis, the US has viewed Iran as the eternal enemy. The humiliation and mock executions endured by the Americans taken hostage at the US Embassy was retaliation for America�s crucial role in the Shah round-ups, torture and death of so many Iranians. The crisis also was the coordinated arrangement between both the Khomeini regime in cahoots with again, America�s CIA led by none other than director George H.W. Bush, sabotaging Carter�s presidency and ensuring that Reagan and Bush replace him. As part of the deal, the hostages would not be released until the day Reagan was sworn into office. This sinister partnership cemented both Khomeini�s power avenging America for its sins against Iran as well as lock Iran and the US into becoming permanent enemies out of the two regimes� mutual self-interest.
 
As a side note, 30 years after the hostage ordeal, the American victims were being used as political fodder when they were suddenly allowed to seek litigation against Iran for financial compensation. Decades earlier their own US government had agreed to not allow them to sue as a condition of their release while US corporations that lost business were awarded settlement damages. The hostages were dragged through their trauma all over again as mere propaganda tools being used to drum up negative publicity against Tehran by the same heartless political machine that sold them down the river in the first place three decades earlier.
 
Like Syria, Russia, China, Venezuela, North Korea and Cuba, Iran has refused to be bullied into submission, raped and plundered by fascist US Empire hegemony that unleashes transnationals and unpayable IMF-World Bank loans to enslave and control the entire world. And for that they pay dearly.
 
Constantly linking Iran to terrorism is an Empire favorite pastime. The whodunit behind the 1983 truck bomb in the Beirut barracks killing 241 US Marines was never properly solved although according to a former Mossad agent, his outfit knew exactly when and where the attack would take place but chose not to inform the US. Once again America�s �greatest ally� stabbed us in the back. Washington conveniently blamed Hezbollah because they�re considered a Lebanese terrorist organization that happens to now be in Syria fighting and winning against the real terrorists, the US created and backed ISIS.
 
The Lebanese people back in 1983 desperately wanted the US out of their country, and for good reason. For months prior to the Marine barracks attack, the battleship USS New Jersey had been indiscriminately shelling the hills of Beirut, killing thousands of civilians in yet another US �peacekeeping� mission gone awry. But since Iran and Hezbollah both share Shiite Islam in common, it�s guilt by association. This scapegoating is used to justify hammering Tehran with more sanctions all the time. And now lawsuit settlements for US victims and their families to boot. Two federal courts just awarded Americans in both 9/11 and the Marine barracks attacks damages to be drawn from $2 billion in assets frozen at Iran�s Central Bank.
 
Did the US pay the families who lost loved ones in Beirut, many of them children? And how about the 288 Iranians on board the Iran Air flight shot down in 1988 by a US Navy cruise missile? What about their families? Nope, they didn�t even get an admission of guilt or apology from the US. All they got was the soon to be President-elect Bush at the UN adding insult to their injury:
 
I will never apologize for the United States - I don�t care what the facts are.
 
And speaking of our pal Israel, how about those 34 US sailors on board the USS Liberty murdered by Israeli air force pilots in 1967? Were those Americans and their families ever compensated? Nope, instead Kennedy assassination co-conspirator LBJ just protected the Israeli perps by keeping it tightly under wraps.
 
And then there was that extremely bloody war that the US goaded with full support then ally Saddam Hussein into invading Iran fresh off its revolution in 1980, giving Saddam the internationally outlawed biological weapon sarin gas to use against Iran as well as well as the Kurds his own people. Without US intervention that 8-year war costing a million lives that Iran was forced to defend itself would�ve never happened. Did the families of the over half million of Iranians killed ever see any compensation from Empire for that grossly inhumane tragedy? The US and Israel love watching Muslims kill themselves. And then we often hear the anti-Iranian rhetoric bandied about in Washington accusing Iran of being an eminent threat to world peace and stability (like Russia and China) when in fact Iran has never once invaded another country in over 200 years. Can America say that? At war 93% of the time since 1776, invading over 70 nations and just since WWII killing up to 30 million people? I don�t think so.
 
When the world�s biggest sponsors of terrorism and war are actually America and Israel and their partners-in-crime, calling Iran a �rogue state� and part of an �axis-of-evil� is simply playing the Edward Bernays PR game with utmost cunning and deceit. Falsely accusing Iran (and all of the above on America�s shit list) as targeted enemies while covering up the true reality that it�s the US Empire et al that�s been the real axis-of-evil committing far more egregious crimes all over this earth for far longer time than any of us have even been alive, that grand illusion is the biggest crime against humanity of all.
 
Only because of Americans� ignorance and complicity due to our incredible gullibility accepting spoon-fed state and media lies has the US Empire killing machine been given carte blanche license to continue killing without interruption or resistance. And of course the killing machine couldn�t do it without its propaganda machine. This diabolical tag team duo has been at it for well over a century capitalizing on the fact that to the victor goes the spoils, which includes rewriting a whitewashed history to ensure that the real bad guys stay looking good even if it�s all just a colossal pack of brainwashing lies.
 
So that�s how the Bushes, the Clintons and the Manchurian President Obama came to power and operate carrying out their demonic orders from Satanic worshipping pedophiles who ritualistically sodomize trafficked in babies before eating them for breakfast. That�s no lie folks, that�s where we�re at. Those in power now, be they the public puppets we think we elect but don�t, or the real terrorists pulling all their strings, this is what the elitist power structure has perversely degenerated into. You can�t get any more evil than that. What to us has been cast as good is really bad and what�s supposed to be bad turns out to be not so bad after all, perhaps even good in comparison to the evil ones in charge. In fact the so called bad guys like Putin turn out be saints relative to the Washington evildoers that through bind ignorance we�ve allowed. We cannot condone, look away or pretend any more, especially when at this point we�re all �useless eaters� being lined up in their crosshairs.
 
It�s worth looking back at how for years the US government and its MSM propaganda whores, especially since 9/11, have been making bogus claims about Iran building WMD nuke weapons. In 2003 Iran revealed its uranium enrichment program for peaceful purposes openly inviting International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection teams to confirm. But the likes of Netanyahu, Cheney and Bush never stopped harping about needing to go to war against Iran over WMD�s that didn�t exist. Where have we heard that one before? Truth is, even no friend of the truth the CIA maintained that Iran gave up its nuclear weapons research in 2003, also verified by the more credible IAEA inspectors.
 
Contrast this with Israel that for decades has been stockpiling nuclear warheads. US Defense Department sources estimate the rogue state has enough material for as many as 190 warheads. Yet Washington says nothing about Israel�s weapons despite having declassified CIA and FBI documents proving Israel stole uranium from the US to make nukes in the 1950�s with active assistance from France as well as from the United States. The double standard hypocrisy is shamefully atrocious. But then to top it all off, Israel maintains the Sampson option, reserving the blackmailing right to nuke any or all of its allies should it believe any are fraternizing with Zionist enemies� which brings us to the next point.
 
The three plus decades of economic sanctions against Iran haven�t just been heaped on them by the US. As Empire puppets the UN and EU follow their leader every time. The UN began piling sanctions on in 2006 and 2007 over Iran�s choice to continue developing nuclear energy for civilian consumption. In 2012 the EU playing judge and jury joined the Anglo-Zionist witch-hunt convinced that Tehran was developing military nukes, punishing Iran with an oil embargo. Washington�s open hostility and obsessive vilification of the Tehran government through the years has everything to do with Israel�s hatred toward Iran, seeing that country as its greatest single threat in the Middle East. And let�s face it, Israel�s foreign policy is America�s foreign policy, except Israel gets to sit back watching US Empire do its bidding fighting Israel�s wars.
 
In October 2013 negotiations were once again held between Iran and the P5 + 1 nations (Russia, China, France, UK, Germany and the US) over Tehran�s alleged nuclear development program and were ultimately brought to fruition last summer when an agreement was finally reached. Despite the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal being ratified by Congress and approved by the UN, Netanyahu and his Washington minions never stop accusing Iran of secretly harboring nuclear weapons. The Zionist agenda�s been so powerful pushing its hypocritical lies in a broken record mantra that AIPAC pandering Trump promised to tear up the Iran deal. Israel loving Hillary was behind the stiffest Tehran sanctions of all, delivered by the UN in 2010.
 
Obama who had taken so much heat for reaching a ratified plan with Iran, then shows his true deceitful colors betraying Tehran by reneging on lifting the economic sanctions. Instead he pressures central banks not to provide loans to Iran and continues keeping Iranian assets frozen. Meanwhile two federal judges recently ordered Iran to pay $10.5 billion in damages to American families of deceased 9/11 victims and another one for the 1983 Beirut bombing. No accident these recent developments unfold at the same time 28 missing pages from the whitewashed 9/11 Commission implicate Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 attacks and not one shred of evidence points to Iran having anything to do with 9/11. While all this bullshit is just more of the hate Iran campaign, the facts clearly show the biggest 9/11 culprit aside from the treasonous Washington neocons (many of whom own dual Israeli citizenship) is Israel-Mossad.
 
Israel, the US, Europe and the six Gulf State monarchies along with Turkey are the chief financiers and supporters of the largest terrorist organization on the planet. Russia and Iran of course are close allies of Syria�s Bashar al-Assad and the actual enemies of the ISIS terrorists. The gains made in recent months by Assad�s army with assistance from Russia, Iran, Syrian Kurds and Hezbollah have exposed the West�s pretense of fighting against terrorists and embarrassingly placed a serious damper on the Western axis-of-evil�s stranglehold on the Middle East. As a result, there currently is a power shift in process throughout the entire region and beyond.
 
It�s no accident that once Putin outed Obama on protecting terrorists instead of destroying them, suddenly Obama as the slithering, slimy snake-in-the-grass he is, has not followed through on removing the sanctions against Iran. All the animosities that the US elites have bombarded Tehran with are back on the table with Hillary promising as president that she will go to war against Iran. Of course as the unindicted felonious traitor she is, Hillary�s been thoroughly bought out by foreign national interests, among them Iran�s two biggest enemies Saudi Arabia and Israel.
 
Those two Navy boats caught in Iranian waters back in January when US sailors were held, questioned and released after 24-hours by Iranian authorities is a typical example of how the Obama regime and media presstitutes twist reality to make Iran [or Russia or China] the bad guy. First the White House claimed mechanical problems caused the boats to inadvertently drift into Iran�s territorial range. Of course the press mimicked this without question slanting the story to make the Iranians the heavy for holding our poor boys and girls hostage.
 
Then the feds changed their story and claimed that the boats somehow made an honest navigational error and got lost even though they�re stationed in Bahrain and supposedly were enroute to Bahrain from Kuwait, the same sea route they constantly traverse. So that line�s difficult to swallow especially knowing that the government already lied with its failed engine story. But once again, MSM uncritically lapped it up, pointing how the sailors were mistreated, forced on their knees at gunpoint, humiliated and coerced into apologizing. Another highly suspicious anomaly � why was there no communication to their chain of command? And now a new spin is making news. A recent American Thinker article�s first line reads �Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.)�s revelation of the degree to which Iran abused our men and women in uniform after they pirated two US Navy boats�� The propaganda war is as endless as the neocons� endless war on terror.
 
Saudi Arabia initiated an illegal war in Yemen against the Houthi rebels that had ousted the corrupt and oppressive US-Saudi puppet dictator Hadi who was forced into exile in Riyadh during last year�s coup. Hadi�s term in office had ended a year earlier yet he was refusing to comply with a UN sanctioned resolution he�d signed requiring him to hold elections. As part of a fellow Shiite minority in the Middle East, Iran has supported the Houthis. Because the Saudis were convinced Iran was behind the March coup, they elected to start a major war. But their miscalculation is costing the Kingdom dearly, sinking into a protracted military quagmire has the House of Saud becoming the house of debt bled by this illicit war in Yemen.
 
The Saudis possess a massive US supplied airpower advantage that�s bombing the Yemeni people back to the Stone Age. As of 6 months ago, 6,000 have been brutally slaughtered, half civilian. Saudi Arabia and its Sunni coalition that includes Israeli air strikes are committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing, further aided by a contingent of Islamic State terrorists, Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula terrorists, various Gulf State mercenaries, and last month joined by at least 100 US boots on the ground Army Rangers. Even the UN has joined this lopsided fight against the people of Yemen in its complicity for not condemning the illegal war and turning a blind eye to the Saudi led war crimes and atrocities while maintaining that the former dictator Hadi is still the legitimate president. As if that�s not reprehensible enough, the UN imposed an �arms� embargo blockading relief shipments to the starving Yemeni population.
 
A Saudi memo released by WikiLeaks confirms the bottom line reason why the House of Saud launched a war in Yemen. It also explains why the Saudis are receiving so much widespread support for what constitutes crimes against humanity. A proposed Saudi pipeline plan would pump its oil passing through Yemen to the southern port of Aden, thereby bypassing Iran�s gatekeeping role at the Strait of Hormuz where all oil out of the Middle East flows. This development would significantly undercut Iran�s regional power which of course would be in perfect alignment with the strategic imperialistic interests of US Empire as well as the Greater Israel Project. Iran as yet another Hegelian problem, reaction and solution is crystal clear.
Noted journalist-filmmaker John Pilger incisively sums up America�s influence around the globe this way:
 
Since 1945, more than a third of the membership of the United Nations - 69 countries - have suffered some or all of the following at the hands of America�s modern fascism: they have been invaded, their governments overthrown, their popular movements suppressed, their elections subverted, their people bombed and their economies stripped of all protection, their societies subjected to a crippling siege known as �sanctions.�
 
Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate and former US Army officer. He has written a manuscript based on his unique military experience entitled �Don�t Let The Bastards Getcha Down.� It examines and focuses on US international relations, leadership and national security issues. After the military, Joachim earned a master�s degree in Clinical Psychology and worked as a licensed therapist in the mental health field with abused youth and adolescents for more than a quarter century. In recent years he has focused on his writing, becoming an alternative media journalist. His blog site is at http://empireexposed.blogspot.co.id/. Joachim is also a regular contributor to Global Research, Sott.net and LewRockwell.com. Feel free to contact me at  nandrtal[at]hotmail[dot]com 

Neocons� Hegelian-Style War against the Post-9/11 World - War against Islam, Russia, China and Iran

While we are all still basking in the glory of a hockey season that ended with a second straight Kelly Cup championship for the Allen Americans it is time for me to say my thanks to all involved. While I will still be posting blogs during the summer when there is news to report, it will no longer be each day.

I sure consider myself lucky to have started this blog four seasons ago and have all of them end with championships. Who would have imagined a blog started for the Heritage Ranch Allen Americans fan club now reaches people all over the US and Canada as well as the hockey hotbeds in Europe on a daily basis and is about to pass 700,000 pages views.  It proves fans of the Allen Americans are all over the world.

I want to start out by thanking all of the fans that frequent this blog. It has been my pleasure to meet many of you and your words of encouragement in person, comments at the end of each blog, posts on Twitter, Facebook, message boards, and email have been very satisfying and inspiring. A special thanks to Mary Betz and Ted Hosterman for filling in for me when I go on a trip (or two) during the hockey season. They do a great job.

Thanks to the many fans, bloggers, and media from all over the league that have promoted the blog as fair and balanced and also have shared information with me about their teams. One of the unexpected benefits of writing the blog has been getting to know all of the broadcasters, writers, bloggers and passionate fans from other teams.

Joe Babik, Director of Communication for the ECHL has once again spent more time with me this season than I deserved to help educate me about the policies, rules, and procedures of the ECHL. Joe has gone above and beyond the call of duty and seems to respond to questions 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Thanks also to Joe Ernst, Vice President of Hockey Operations, for his willingness to answer all of my questions when he is attending games in Allen and also for compiling information when requested.

Thank you to the players who have never said no to a single request I have made of them for a chat, an interview or a question.  I have gotten to know most of these young men both professionally and personally and they have represented the Americans in an outstanding manner.

One of my goals when I started the blog was to share the personal stories of the players. The wives/girlfriends, parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and friends I have met have been great about sharing family stories which I have then been able to share in the blog. Thanks to all of you.

Thanks to Steve Martinson and his staff (Tony Curtale, Jason Deitsch, Thomas Speer, Luke Chilcott, Nolan Bowker, Jaime Garcia) for always being willing to talk to me and help educate me. A special thanks to coach Martinson, for allowing me to stop by his office after every game and every practice to ask questions and talk about the team. It is his openness and trust that has allowed the blog to have information you can't find anywhere else.

A special thank you to Tommy Daniels, Director of Communications & Broadcasting for the Allen Americans, who has been a tremendous help to me for four years. He is the one who encouraged me to start the blog, made me feel like part of the media team, answered many questions, let me stop by his office on an almost daily basis to get current information, publicized the blog to attract new readership, and invited me to be part of the between periods conversation on his radio broadcast to talk hockey and promote the blog.  Tommy is the best in the business and is always willing to share his knowledge with others.

Thanks to Tommy's radio sidekick, Maurice Fitzgerald, for all the between periods chats on the radio broadcast. I always describe myself as the between periods fill-in guest when nobody else is available. There are plenty of people around during the playoffs but for those midweek games in October and November I am in high demand. It was a special thrill to be asked to do a Wichita radio broadcast this year with Maurice as we filled in for the voice of the Wichita Thunder, Jason Mals, who was accompanying his daughter to her first father-daughter dance. Maurice did all the heavy lifting as the play by play guy while I did the color commentary. We both became big Wichita fans for just one night. 

Thanks to photographers Lauren Lyssy, Kimberly Sauer and Dianne Webster who work tirelessly to provide pictures for the blog. You may know I write the blog in the morning and get up at 4:00 am. Many nights after a game, Dianne, Kimberly and Lauren are up until 2:00 am to process all of their pictures and send me their best ones. It sure makes for a better game recap with their pictures included.

Thanks also to the entire Team Sin Bin which has welcomed me into their group for the second year and made it very easy for me to get my stories on their site (thesinbin.net). A special thanks to Matt Harding (SinBinThunder) and Joe Rozycki (SinBinMavs) who work their magic every day to post my stories.

Unlike most writers, bloggers, and other media types that cover the Americans I have a dual role as in addition to being a blogger I also coordinate the activities of the fan club (over 200 members) at Heritage Ranch where I live. In this capacity I spend a lot of time in the front office of the Americans arranging for season tickets, suites, individual game tickets, seats for soldiers tickets, and other promotions. I want to thank the entire sales and marketing staff and especially Mike Martin and Robert Fatta who have gone out of their way to help me and the residents of Heritage Ranch. This group is understaffed and overworked and do a great job given the circumstances they are dealing with, if you know what I mean.

Thanks also to the Ice Angels for all they do to promote the team off the ice and entertain the fans at games. They are the best in the business, led by Ice Angels Director (and mamma bear), Stephanie Di Biase-Wheat.

So a fourth consecutive magical season has come to an end. I have been a season ticket holder since the beginning so I have been following the team since its inception but these last four seasons have been different. I have been able to see the team from a different perspective and the access given by the entire organization helped me bring the Allen Americans story to the blog.

With the official celebrations of winning the Kelly Cup complete and the guys already heading out of town, the uncertainty about next year commences. Wendy Ellis, who works for the company that developed the Villages at Allen and Villages at Fairview (MGHerring) does a lot for the team, is a super fan and is the closest thing to a "team mother"  says this every year and it captures the sentiment perfectly.  "The day after winning the championship is always so bittersweet. Winning is awesome - so happy for the guys! Saying goodbye is the hardest day of the season! We will miss these guys and their families so much. Such a wonderful group. So proud and so grateful we get to share it with them. We have come to realize how fortunate we are to get to know the players and their families the way we do and to have access the way we do."

This will be the last daily blog post for the season. I am having knee replacement surgery in a week so will be laid up for a while. Like so many of the players, I will be rehabbing this summer and hope to come back next season in much better shape. I will still blog on an as needed basis as new information becomes available. If you are on Facebook or Twitter you can see whenever there is a new post on the blog by liking my page on Facebook at "Allen Americans Blog" or following me on Twitter at @allenamericans1. I will also put any new post up at thesinbin.net which is a great place to get information about all teams in the ECHL during the off season. Maybe the easiest way to stay in touch is by making allenamericansblog.blogspot.com one of your favorites and checking in once and a while. Remember, it is only 125 days to opening night!




DID YOU KNOW: For coach Steve Martinson there is an off season but for General Manager Steve Martinson there is never time to relax. Recruitment is something he spends time doing everyday all year around. Talked to GM Martinson yesterday and his first signing for next season will happen next week. June 16 is the first signing day for next season. Another critical date is coming up on June 30. Until June 30 all of the Allen American player's rights for the ECHL remain with Allen (unless the rights are traded) but on June 30th Martinson has to submit to the league a list of no more than eight players he wants to protect. These eight names do not include players that have already signed. Because only eight players can be protected there is incentive to get as many players signed by June 30th as possible. The eight players will be given qualifying offers which for the most part must be 5% above their salary from last season. The qualifying offer period is from June 30th to August 1st. The rules are a little different for players with 39 or fewer games, 40 or more games and veterans (over 260 games) but in almost all cases the offer must include a 5% salary increase.

Thank Yous All Around & Recruitment For Next Season Is Underway

I attended the Allen Americans championship celebration rally yesterday afternoon (4:00 pm) which took place outside at the Village At Fairview. Have to admit it was anticlimactic after the excitement of the post game activities at the Allen Event Center following the game on Thursday night. However, it was an opportunity for fans to talk to the players, get pictures and/or autographs and wish the guys well for the summer. My suggestion if this should happen again (drive for five was already being thrown about for next season) is hold this celebration at 6:00 pm when more working folks can attend and the temperature is a few degrees cooler.

For me, the day after the championship celebration always leaves me with a melancholy feeling because it is the last time I will ever see some of the players (and their families) I have gotten to know both personally and professionally during the season. Some will get AHL contracts, some will go overseas, some won't want to return and some won't be invited back. So the celebration is happy and sad at the same time.

From winning the championship to scattering to the winds always happens quickly but this year seems to be quicker than normal. Justin Courtnall has already left, others will be leaving over the weekend and most will be gone next week. 

One factor in players returning to play for Allen next year is salary. When you win a championship everyone feels they deserve a raise but the salary cap for next season goes up a whopping $200 per week from $12400 to $12600. That is about $10 per week per player. Players have to come to Allen for more than an extra few bucks. As coach Martinson says, you can always find a team that will pay you $50-$100 more per week but will you live in a place like Allen and make a deep playoff run with a couple extra months of pay and playoff bonus. When you add up the playoff bonus (over $4000), the extra weeks of pay and the extra months of housing the players don't have to pay it can be over $15,000 for the higher paid married guys.

I had the chance to ask everyone their plans for the summer. Almost everyone pointed out that with playing until June 9 there isn't much of a summer. Many are dealing with injuries and their concentration over the summer will be on rehab. The other trend I noticed this year is how many players plan to spend the majority of the summer in Texas. Maybe a good sign there will be a big core group back for next season.

Here goes the "boys of summer" in their own words:

Rick Pinkston - I will go home (Michigan) for a bit but will also spend time in Texas visiting relatives who have a ranch. I will also spend about a month at school (Dartmouth) as a friend and myself started a company so we will be spearheading that. No vacation plans. This week celebrating the championship will be my vacation. I have never played hockey until June so that would typically be my rest period. I will probably take a week off and then hop back on the ice. For me being on the ice is not work, it is enjoyment. I see it as an escape. Many say skating is like riding a bike but it is not that way for me. If I take a week off I feel like I have to re-teach myself how to skate. I am not a huge golfer but I do like to play roller hockey in the summer. I like to bike a lot and will do a few bike races over the summer. 

Jake Hildebrand - I do a lot of private lessons and goalie camps back home in Pittsburgh where I will spend the summer. I will also do a lot of golfing and fishing. I just bought a new grill and am real excited about becoming a master griller. I think I am taking a vacation to Myrtle Beach in July. It will be a family vacation and is always a lot of fun.

Matt Register - I will spend most of the summer in Minnesota where my wife is from. I plan on playing a lot of golf. I will relax for a while, re-energize my body and then get ready for next year. I will take at least a month off before I start skating again. No vacation plans other than a few weddings we will attend. We will also go back to Canada to visit my family. 

Nolan Bowker (equipment manager) - I will be going to Nashville in a couple of weeks for an equipment conference. Then I plan on going to San Jose for their development camp. I will head home to Vancouver for a couple of weeks to visit and play some baseball. Then I will head back to Allen around the end of August to get ready for training camp. 

Chris Crane - I will be at home in Virginia Beach. I am still in physical therapy after my knee surgery and am trying to get my knee back to where it was before. I am going to have to train much harder than normal this summer just because of this injury. I have another month before I can get back on the ice so I am really going to focus on training and getting ready for next season. I live on the ocean so it is kind of a vacation everyday. 

Spencer Asuchak - I am going back to Kamloops for the summer to train and spend time with my family and friends. I will play some ball and also golf. My best friend is flying to Dallas the end of the month and we are driving home through California. We will take a week or so to get home stopping wherever we want on the way. We will pretend we are beach bums for a couple of weeks. 

Jordan Rowley - I will be heading home (Edmonton)  and will take a week off and then start training for next season. I am not sure yet what my plans are for next season. It is possible I will be playing overseas and that would make for a very short summer as they start early. The time I do have at home will be devoted to training and lots of golf. 

Danny Federico - I will be heading back home to Massachusetts for the summer. As soon as I heal up I will start working out to get ready for next season. My vacation will be my honeymoon in August when we will go to Aruba. I play in a summer hockey league with all of the guys I train with.

Greger Hanson - I will be spending most of the summer in Allen. Andrea and I will visit her family in Michigan, then go to Sweden to visit my family. We will spend some time in London as well but other than that we will be in Texas. Andrea (she just graduated from law school) in pursuing a job in Dallas.

Tristan King - My wife and I will be traveling here and there to visit family but we will be staying in Texas for the summer. I will take some time off to recover from the season before I start lifting weights. I won't start skating again until August. I like to fish and may try to hook up with Gill and Gens in Minnesota. I am not a fanatic fisherman like them but I do like to fish. 

Kyle Neuber - I work at the University of Guelph (Guelph, Ontario) during the summer running kids camps. My parents just went to Italy and I was supposed to go but couldn't because of the playoffs. That was supposed to be my summer vacation. I have no injuries and am not banged up so I will take a week off and start training for next season. With the camps, I am on the ice everyday so that helps. I enjoy golfing with my parents in the summer so look forward to that.

Nikita Jevpalovs - I will be going home to Latvia for a short time and then head to Canada where I will train for next season. When I am at home my favorite things to do is sleep and play soccer. 

Thomas Carr - I will be heading home (Edmonton) for the summer. I will be building a deck on my home, getting my lawn put in and playing golf everyday. I will go on vacation somewhere with my girlfriend. Probably to one of those all inclusive resorts in Mexico. Then I will head home and go to work getting ready for next season. 

Casey Pierro-Zabotel - We will be headed back to Canada, probably leaving Wednesday, and await the birth of our child. I will be training and playing a lot of baseball. Most likely no vacation this summer with the new baby. 

Eric Roy - I am heading home for a quick visit but then I am going to the Columbus Blue Jackets development camp later this month. I will take a couple of days off to spend time with the family but then get right back in the gym. After the development camp I will spend time at the lake with family and friends. I will do a lot of fishing. 

Jaime Garcia (trainer) - I will be here in Allen over the summer. I will work at Ortho Texas and will be watching over the guys that are rehabbing back in their hometowns. We do weekly and sometimes daily check-ins with them. Personally, I am still doing rehabilitation on a torn hamstring I suffered so I am working on that. I love to go up in the mountains and hike and camp. I like to paddle board and also trail running. I have an aunt and uncle in Austin so will visit them. 

David Makowski - I will be heading back home to St. Louis for the summer. I will stick around Allen for a little bit and then head home next week. I will start my rehab on my hand and get ready for next season. Last summer I went to Hong Kong, Singapore and Bali but with my injury and needing to do rehab I will most likely not take a vacation this summer. With a hand injury I can't do anything with a stick for a while but the good thing is I can skate and focus on my lower body. I will need to find a new hobby for the summer since I won't be able to golf. I will probably do a lot more fishing. 

Joel Rumpel - I will be spending the summer back at the University of Wisconsin in Madison training with a bunch of guys. Some NHL guys like Joe Pavelski, Brian Elliott and Adam Burish all own homes there so it is a good training environment. Since we played so long this season, the only time away from training will be to go back home to Canada to visit family. I am a big golf fan. I am playing in a charity golf tournament in Wisconsin on Thursday and have a charity hockey game on Saturday in Madison that a lot of NHL guys come back to play in. 

Dyson Stevenson - I will be headed home to Saskatchewan for the summer. I will be rehabbing my shoulder injury and getting ready for next season. I will be helping my dad and grandfather on the farm and also hope to do some fishing. My dad and I are looking to get a boat. I normally play a lot of softball but my injury will prevent that. I am helping put on a charity softball tournament that takes place next week.

Aaron Gens - I am going to Minnesota on Thursday as I am doing a hockey camp. If we have to move out of our apartment I will come right back to Texas but if not I will go home (Baudette, MN) and fish for a week. I have an internship that will start here in Texas in early July. 

Riley Gill - We just bought a house here in Texas so we will move our stuff on Monday and then Thursday we will head to Minnesota for a visit with family and to do some fishing. I am the player representative for the team so we will be going to Orlando from June 20-25 for the PHPA (Professional Hockey Players Association) annual meeting. We will then spend a couple of weeks at our cabin in Wisconsin and then head back to Allen early July. We have a wedding to attend in the Outer Banks of North Carolina the end of August so that will be our vacation. 

Vincent Arseneau - I will head home to Quebec for the summer and that is a vacation for me. I plan on doing a lot of fishing while at home. I will take about a month off to rest my body and then start getting ready for next season. My routine is to play golf in the morning and workout after golf. Then I can fish in the afternoon. 

J. P. LaFontaine - Honestly I have no idea at this point. I hope to get back to Minnesota soon. I also need to spend time with my grandpa because he is not doing the greatest. He is in Michigan so I will visit with him. He has the best house ever, right on a lake so I visit him every summer. I will fish almost everyday when I am with my grandpa. 

Chad Costello - Our plan is to stay in the Allen area for the summer. We will go home to Iowa for a week or so. Me and Gens have an internship that will start in July and hopefully I will be here again next year. I like to golf in the summer and will spend time at the pool with the kids and playing baseball with the oldest. I will take two or three weeks off to rest my body and then start biking. I don't like to stay off the ice too long so will start skating in about a month. 

Gary Steffes - I will be working full time for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and will be traveling around the US coaching hockey and telling people about Jesus. My schedule already has me going to Minnesota, Maryland, Massachusetts, Utah and then I will travel home to Michigan to see the family. I get to play with kids and play with pucks all summer so it is a blessing and I just love it. I will also be attending an event in Chicago called the "Global Leadership Summit" which my mom gave me as a birthday gift. My dad an I will also go on a kayaking trip while I am in Michigan. 



DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is a five year agreement with next season (2016-17) being year number four. There are escalator clauses that call for increases in each year of the agreement but they are small increases. For next season the salary cap increases $200 per week to $12,600. The maximum a rookie (fewer than 25 games) can be paid goes up $10 per week to $530. The minimum salary for rookies increases $15 per week to $445. The minimum salary for non-rookies increases $20 to $500 per week. There is no maximum salary for non-rookies as long as the team stays under the salary cap. Per diem when on the road increases $2 per day to $42.







The Boys of Summer - The Plans for the Off Season



YOU WILL WALK TOGETHER FOREVER - photo by Lauren Lyssy


Today's post will be a long and rambling road because there is so much to say about the momentous occasion last night. For the record the Allen Americans beat the Wheeling Nailers 4-2 to win the Kelly Cup by a series score of 4-2. I spent time on the ice after the game, in the locker room and in the coaches office and didn't record one comment, ask a question or take a picture as all I wanted to do was observe what was going on and congratulate everyone involved.

- There is something special about the grind that leads to a championship in any sport but to win 16 games on the way to a hockey championship is special. The quote below really captures what team sport is all about at any level and what the Allen Americans represent.  A bunch of men playing a game, strangers coming together for a common goal, willing to do anything for each other.

"Win today and we walk together forever."
�Philadelphia Flyers Coach Fred Shero wrote this on his famous chalkboard before the Flyers' 1974 Stanley Cup finals victory.

You can talk about all of the championships Allen has won in the past but for this group of players it is all about this season as they will always be connected in a very special way and to see them celebrate their accomplishment was great. They will indeed walk together for ever. 
 
- One of the most enjoyable parts of watching the team win a championship is the reaction of their families and friends. The tears of joy, celebrations, and pictures are very special and are memories that will be cherished forever. Whether it was Chad Costello putting his MVP trophy on the ice to embrace his three young children, Riley Gill straining to find his wife and son in the crowd or Steve Martinson looking all over for his two children, it was obvious how important it is to share the moment with family and friends. The biggest smile of the night on coach Martinson's face was when he gave his kids a hug and presented them with a championship hat. I saw lots of embraces with moms, dads, siblings, grandparents and friends.

- A special acknowledgement to the moms on the team. Yes, the hockey season is grueling for the players but imagine what it is like for the moms with young children to deal with late night hockey games, long road trips, all of the "guy" activities and after hours commitments. How about the team giving the wives and girlfriends a championship necklace this year to go along with the championship rings the players receive. And no I wasn't put up to this by one of the wives.

- Goals scorers in the game last night for Allen were Tristan King (7), Greger Hanson (15), Eric Roy (5) and Gary Steffes (13).

- It was certainly fitting that Allen won the Kelly Cup last night in a game where they went 3-4 on the power play and did not have an even strength goal. The power play has been the savior for Allen many times this season and it was certainly the biggest factor in winning in the playoffs. The Americans led the ECHL during the regular season with a power play percentage of  21.1%. In the playoffs they improved the overall power play percentage to 27.2% and at home it was an astounding 32.7%. What is even more impressive is how disciplined the team was in not taking penalties. They made their opponents pay time and time again.

- Led by arguably the best passer in the history of the ECHL in Chad Costello, the Americans dominated the power play stats in the playoffs. Allen occupied the top four spots in power play points with Costello (17), Makowski (13), Hanson (12) and Roy (11). Hanson led the playoffs in power play goals (8), Costello in power play assists (17) and points (20), Roy in rookie power play assists (8) and points (11). David Makowski led all defensemen in power play goals (3), assists (10) and points (13). That is what you call dominance.

- Allen has won four straight championships (two in Central Hockey League & two in ECHL) which is unprecedented in minor league hockey, The only constant in the four championships is coach Steve Martinson. There are no players from the 2013 championship still on the team. The list of players that have won three of the four championships got longer last night as Greger Hanson and Spencer Asuchak joined Jamie Schaafsma, Brian McMillin, Tyler Ludwig and Trevor Ludwig with three Allen Championship rings.

- As much enjoyment there is in seeing players repeat or three-peat as champions in Allen it is just as much fun to see players win in an Americans uniform for the first time. Players with a lot of experience (Pierro-Zabotel, King, Register, Courtnall) and those still classified as rookies (Roy, Jevpalovs, LaFontaine, Pinkston, Carr, Rowley, Rumpel, Hildebrand. However they arrived in Allen is was a good move.

- How does Steve Martinson continue to win? He is the best general manager in AA hockey. He always says the key to winning is getting the best players and that is what he does best. He has done it with youth ( their were eight rookies on this year's playoff roster) and with teams with very few rookies. He gets the most from the players and is not afraid to part ways with players if it helps the team win. Martinson has now won 10 championships in 20 years of coaching. Throw in a couple of championships as a player and it is an even dozen rings. He certainly isn't noted for being a sentimental guy but he did bring his championship rings from the first three years in Allen to the rink last night. Martinson is now 14-0 in playoff series since becoming the Allen coach. The last seven times he has made it to a championship final he has won. Here is a story written by Rick Gosselin that makes to case for for Steve Martinson. It is a must read: http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/dallas-stars/stars/2016/06/10/gosselin-best-gm-town-stars-jim-nill-rangers-jon-daniels-itsnbspsteve-martinson-allen-americans

- Hard to overstate the importance of Chad Costello to the Allen Americans. Last night he became the first player in ECHL history to win the regular season MVP and go on to win the playoff MVP award. His 29 assists in the playoffs blew away the all time record which was set way back in 2000 at 26. He served as co-captain of the team. He won the ECHL regular season scoring championship the last two seasons. With all of Chad's offensive accomplishments, maybe his most impressive stat is he  has never missed a game (regular season or playoffs) since joining the team last season. He is the true ironman of this team.

- Allen would not be the two time Kelly Cup champions with out goalie Riley Gill. There is nothing more important in the playoffs than an experienced goalie. Riley had a couple of injuries during the season and in the playoffs but as he has done in the past, when it is crunch time he is as good as it gets. The higher the stakes the better he plays. That is why he has won the Kelly Cup three times in the last four years. With 3:44 remaining in the game and Wheeling trailing by one goal, Riley made an unbelievable save as Nailer forward Ty Loney had a wide open net at point blank range. Riley somehow slide to his right and got a piece of the puck with his pad. It was definitely a game saver and a shot Loney will see in his sleep for a long time. Riley ended the playoffs with the most wins (12), minutes (997), saves (469) and a save percentage of .923.

- With his 12 wins in the playoffs this year Riley Gill now owns the all time ECHL record for playoff victories. He has 48 playoff wins. Second all time is 43 and third is 31. That record may stand for a while and my guess is Riley is not done adding to his total.

- Congrats to the Wheeling Nailers team and entire organization for an unbelievable playoff run. They certainly earned the moniker of "comeback kids" with what they accomplished to get into the playoffs and to the final. Here is what coach Martinson had to say about Wheeling, "Wheeling had a great playoff run. It is always a crap shoot when you are a small market northern team. Getting guys back from the AHL in time to win in the playoffs is always critical. I have a ton of respect for what the coaches and players accomplished in the playoffs. Coaches that have not had the opportunity to work in the north don't realize how hard it is not to have your best team going down the stretch. When I coached in Elmira, I used to get multiple calls from the AHL every Friday. We played over 30 games with less than 16 skaters. Wheeling had a great playoff run. I think what differentiates our team is the experience our battle tested players have gets passed along and spreads to the entire team and helps make us a tough team in the playoffs."

- On a personal note what a thrill to be at the Kelly Cup clinching game to celebrate with the team, front office and fans. It took a 14 hour drive from Minnesota on Thursday but it was worth the effort. I am so fortunate to be a small part of the Allen Americans family.

- I thought it was a nice touch for the team to allow fans on the ice to celebrate with the team. There are always concerns about liability when you let so many people on the ice, many with shoes not fit for the occasion. The players were great in staying out to greet the fans and take pictures until everyone had their fill. Job well done.

- Speaking of fan support, the Americans averaged 5082 fans per game during the playoffs which was a big increase over the regular season (4571) and last year's playoff attendance (3547). Let's hope the enthusiasm carries over in ticket sales for next season.  

- If there was a negative concerning what was an amazing night for all involved it was the fact that none of the team owners or their representatives showed up for the game. Seems like the least you could do for the most successful on ice product in minor league hockey is show up and say thanks. One can only hope the lack of support means the owners are negotiating to sell the team to local ownership which is precisely what needs to happen.


- If you haven't had a chance to read some of the stories about the Allen victory here a few links.

Rick Gosselin from the Dallas Morning News has been a big supporter of the Allen Americans and having someone of his stature with a national reputation support the team is invaluable. Here is the story Rick filed after the game last night: http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/dallas-stars/stars/2016/06/09/gosselin-riley-gill-vital-allen-americans-second-consecutive-echl-kelly-cup-championship-fourth-title-row

Here is a story from Patrick Hayslip from the Denton Record Chronicle: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/sports-headlines/20160610-allen-americans-win-kelly-cup.ece

Here is a story from collegehockeyinc.com that talks about the 12 college alumni who were part of the Kelly Cup championship last nght. http://collegehockeyinc.com/articles/allen-wins-another-kelly-cup

Here is a story from Shawn Rine of the Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register titled "Bakker, Nailers helping rebuid city of Wheeling"...http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/662523.html

Here is the story from the ECHL with some more stats about Costello and Gill: http://www.echl.com/allen-claims-second-consecutive-kelly-cup-title-p202765

Here is a story written by Matt Harding of Team Sin Bin, "No Mistaking the Greatness of Allen's Run"... http://thesinbin.net/no-mistaking-the-greatness-of-allens-run/

THANKS FOR A GREAT SEASON BOYS! - photo by Dianne Webster



DID YOU KNOW: To say Allen Americans fans are spoiled with success would be a huge understatement. In their seven years as a franchise they have never experienced a team that did not make the playoffs. Allen made the CHL final in their very first season and has lost in the first round just one time. Throw in two regular season titles and the last four championship seasons and it has been quite a ride.
 

Allen Wins Kelly Cup - You Will Walk Together Forever















                                                                                          ph. Jelena, me

Today, I'm taking you to my little vacay from last September. Time is flying and I don't know how to deal with it. So, I decided that May is a perfect month to share these snapshots from Kotor with you. With its bustling piazzas, old-world ruins, glistening waters, and surrounding mountains, it�s no wonder Kotor topped Lonely Planet�s "Best in Travel" list for 2016.
Now rewind and scroll!

Kotor snapshots