Syria: NATO’s Last Desperate Options in Lost Proxy War

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.

Using Empire primary sources which revealed their directors past plans and given the current facts on the ground, Cartalucci speculates on the various moves that various Empire players, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, might make, and are presently considering, to salvage something out of their deteriorating plans to destabilize Syria.

Because Empire planners together will their Mid-East allies of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Israel had secretly established the proxy army known as ISIS but always identified the latter as a terrorist army which somehow magically appeared fully armed and with sophisticated internet skills, these countries are now forced to cloak their salvaging operation plans as "fighting ISIS".

ISIS, as it has always been designed to be, serves merely as a pretext for justifying any prospective operation by the US and its regional allies – an operation that will be in all reality aimed at challenging and rolling back Syrian and Russian gains on the battlefield – or at the very least, providing an unassailable sanctuary within Syrian territory for the West’s defeated proxies to retreat to.

And you should also read Joe Lauria's take on the Syrian geopolitical situation in an article entitled "Risking World War III in Syria". He expresses a more ominous warning about the potential for a confrontation between Russia and the US.

What we are potentially facing is a war that goes beyond the Soviet-U.S. proxy wars of the Cold War era, and beyond the proxy war that has so far taken place in the five-year Syrian civil war. Russia is already present in Syria. The entry of the United States and its allies would risk a direct confrontation between the two largest nuclear powers on earth.

European Council on Foreign Relations funded by George Soros

Click here to access article by Vanessa Beeley from her blog The Wall Will Fall.

Beeley reveals how the US ruling class funded and important European political think tank to influence European policies to support the interests of the US Empire.  As we have seen, this support has been effectively influenced European leaders to support the separation of Europe's economic and security interests from that of Russia and the Empire's anti-Russian policies. This is an excellent illustration of a modern version of the old "divide and conquer" strategy used historically by all imperialists.

The Guantanamo of Colombia: Pressure Mounts to Shut Down Notorious US-Funded Prison

Click here to access article by John Ocampo from Upside Down World. 

Built in the year 2000, with U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons and USAID funding, as part of the penitentiary restructuring component of Plan Colombia, “La Tramacua” is a veritable house of horrors.

Meanwhile back at the Empire's central command in Washington, the ruling class's chief of public relations (known formally as the "President"), Obama, is lauding the accomplishments of Plan Columbia and throwing in obligatory comments about "human rights", etc, while indicating that he will be asking Congress for more aid in the future.



In addition to projects like the prison, Plan Colombia and all the aid projects covered by their fake drug war has enabled Empire directors to establish military bases in many places in Central and South America. Scroll down to the section of this latter article to the section entitled "Plan Colombia, Continued" for details on US military bases in Colombia.

Learning from the life of Murray Bookchin

Click here to access article by Eirik Eiglad from Reflections on a Revolution (ROAR).

Eiglad presents a review of a new book entitled Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin by his companion of 20yrs, Janet Biehl. He makes reference to the title of this review with this statement: 

This book, however, is not only for the initiated. It deserves to be read by anyone who would like to know more about American radicalism in the last century, or learn more about the genealogy of social ecology.

And reaches this conclusion:

Biehl’s book presents a lucid overview and a lively introduction to Bookchin and the emergence of social ecology.

The Zika Virus Is Harmless - Who Then Benefits From This Media Panic?

Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

The author has dug up substantial evidence that poses some disturbing questions: is corporate media drumming up another false panic over a disease? And, if so, who benefits?

US Regime Change Talks on Syria hit blind alley

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from American Herald Tribune.

Washington and its allies were never serious about finding a genuine peaceful settlement. Now that the wheels have come off this snake-oil bandwagon, the US and its partners are obliged to find some “explanation”to sell to world opinion.

Hence, blame the Syrian government and its Russian ally for blasting the Geneva talks. But the world is not fooled by such reality-inversion. The Western powers’ plans for regime change in Syria just rolled into another blind alley.

The real danger, however, is that Washington and its allies might now attempt a direct military intervention in Syria out of desperation.

Washington Post Op-Ed Calls for "Safe Zones" in Syria

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from Land Destroyer Report.

Here Cartalucci draws our attention to the other US "newspaper of record", the Washington Post, which is trying to prepare the American public for another "humanitarian" intervention, this time it's a more direct one in Syria after their first strategy, the sponsorship of "moderate" terrorist armies, failed to bring down the latest enemy of our ruling capitalist class, the elected Syrian government of President Assad. To make sure the ever gullible majority of the American public supports the intervention, or at least are resigned to it, our imperialist masters are marketing it as creating "safe zones".

America's last option in Syria will likewise [like Libya] divide and destroy the country should it succeed. It will condemn tens of thousands of civilians to violent sectarian-driven deaths and drive hundreds of thousands more out of Syria into neighboring countries and onward to Europe to escape the predictable chaos.

The only "safe haven" that will exist will be for terrorist factions ranging from the "moderate" Al Qaeda groups the US and its allies openly back, to the Islamic State which the West more covertly backs. As Libya has been used to destabilize and launch operations against its neighbors, so too will Syria - being aimed at the remnants of the Iraqi government, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and of course Iran itself.

Why the ‘Sultan of Chaos’ is freaking out

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from RT.

This witty and rather cynical, but perceptive Brazilian independent journalist takes aim at Turkey's megalomaniac Erdogan, his obsession with the Kurds and Russian interference, and his blackmailing of NATO by flooding Europe with the nearby regions' legions of war-fleeing refugees.

Moscow is going after the Turkmen with a vengeance and at the same time providing air support to the PYD [Kurd progressives] west of the Euphrates. That hits the ‘Sultan’ in his heart of hearts; after all Erdogan has threatened multiple times that a PYD/YPG advance west of the Euphrates is the ultimate red line.

An already scared NATO won’t support the folly of an Erdogan war against Russia – as much as US and UK neocons may crave it; as NATO decisions must be unanimous, the last thing EU powers Germany and France want is yet another Southwest Asia war. NATO may deploy the odd Patriot missiles in southern Anatolia and the odd AWACs to support the Turkish Air Force. But that’s it.

Freeing Julian Assange: the last chapter

Click here to access article by John Pilger from OffGuardian. 

The Assange case is rooted across the Atlantic in Pentagon-dominated Washington, obsessed with pursuing and prosecuting whistleblowers, especially Assange for having exposed, in WikiLeaks, US capital crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq: the wholesale killing of civilians and a contempt for sovereignty and international law. None of this truth-telling is illegal under the US Constitution. As a presidential candidate in 2008, Barack Obama, a professor of constitutional law, lauded whistleblowers as " …part of a healthy democracy [and they] must be protected from reprisal”. Obama, the betrayer, has since prosecuted more whistleblowers than all the US presidents combined. The courageous Chelsea Manning is serving 35 years in prison, having been tortured during her long pre-trial detention.

Leak Reveals Denver Police Use Undercover ‘Shadow Teams’ To Target Protest Leaders

Click here to access article by Kit O'Connell from Mint Press News.

If you are awake and aware that our nation is ruled by a tiny class of people who own and/or control every important institution in our society, then you will understand that the ultimate method of control used by this tiny class is their control over all their enforcement agencies who are authorized to use violence together with secret operations to protect the system of capitalism that sustains their rule, provides them with so much wealth, gives them so much power over us, allows them to pollute the earth, invade other countries, and commit so many other crimes against humanity. 

We have witnessed in recent years the strengthening of these enforcement agencies with military grade weapons, and many years before that, the use of various means of surveillance and infiltration used by their secret agencies to deter any significant challenge to their rule. Such police-state type methods are always used after all the softer methods to control working people fails. The latter methods range from the pervasive lies broadcast by their corporate media to the more subtle forms of indoctrination that this class uses in their educational institutions to infect and pollute the thinking of every person to support their class's rule.

Thus if your activism takes you to places where you may encounter the attention of these ruling class enforcement agencies such as this latest protest in Chicago, you must be informed of how they operate. This article, including the links it contains, will help you become informed.

The New Global Financial Cold War

Click here to access this 1 hour audio interview with Michael Hudson discussing the paper he recently wrote entitled "The IMF Changes Its Rules To Isolate China and Russia" from Guns and Butter program broadcast by KPFA in Berkeley, California.

If you are enduring a long commute by car or travel by air, you might be very interested in listening to Hudson's comments which expands on his paper published in December. 

Dr. Hudson discusses his paper, The IMF Changes Its Rules To Isolate China and Russia; implications of the four policy changes at the International Monetary Fund in its role as enforcer of inter-government debts; the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as an alternative military alliance to NATO; the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) threatens to replace the IMF and World Bank; the Trans Pacific Partnership Treaty; the China International Payments System (CIPS); WTO investment treaties; Ukraine and Greece; different philosophies of development between east and west; break up of the post WWII dollarized global financial system; the world dividing into two camps.

There Is No Freedom Without Truth — Paul Craig Roberts

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from his blog. 

This traditional conservative, former member of the Reagan administration, and critic of the current neoliberal capitalist ruling class that now controls our country and much of the world, makes a passionate plea for Americans to wake-up and search for the truth. 

I totally agree with his plea. You see, one value stuck with me from my religious training: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (2 John 1:4-6, King James version of the bible). While I no longer believe that the truth will precisely make you free--it often sickens you--it does enable you to live an authentic existence which in itself is liberating. 

Unfortunately Roberts has not succeeded in knowing all or most of the truth, but I heartily support his endeavor. He is definitely a decent and healthy human being. But most others of his class are not. At this point in his journey to know the truth, he is targeting only the "military-industrial complex". He does not see the system that enables this section or class in society to function the way they do. He does not see that the system has created a tiny class of people who are engaging in monstrous crimes against other classes and against working people most everywhere in the world.  The people in this class, with the exception of few people like Roberts, are often sociopaths and addicts--hopelessly addicted to the drugs of power and wealth that is delivered by their system of capitalism. Their addictions cause them to engage in all kinds of criminal behavior, and often on a massive scale. In this article Roberts provides many of the details of their compulsive lying and deceptions while committing these crimes, and their smearing of dissenters.

Inequality of opportunity (3 graphs)

Click here to access article by David Ruccio from Real-World Economics Review Blog.

By posting these three graphs, Ruccio, and economist, illustrates how class advantage distorts economic opportunities for working people under capitalism.

It’s impossible to defend the grotesque—and growing—levels of inequality that characterize U.S. capitalism.

But, as they have throughout American history, some people still try. Their most common argument is that there’s nothing wrong with unequal outcomes as long as there is equal opportunity.

Hmmm, not so much.

"Lies, Lies And More Lies" - Poisoned Agriculture, GMOs And Toxic Rants

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from East by Northwest. 

Todhunter scores again with this piece about the conflict of science with capitalist interests. 

Science has long been venerated because of the enormous benefits that it has bestowed on humans to rid societies of disease, famine, ignorance, etc, while raising the standard of living of most people. Of course, science has also made possible the most destructive weapons, weapons which now threaten the survival of humans. Science has also been used to develop products which have later been found harmful to humans. However what is less known is the struggle that scientists have had with capitalist ruling classes who have been much more interested in the accumulation of wealth and power than benefiting general populations. Capitalists have largely won out in this struggle by flat-out lying to, or withholding information from, their consumers, and smearing scientists.

In this article, and many others, Todhunter reveals the lies they have told about a very profitable industry--GMO food production, and their constant undermining and censorship of evidence furnished by scientists which show the harmful events of this industry.

Beijing Vs DC: The Battle for Southeast Asia

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook. 

Ever since the rise of first the British, and a few decades later, all Western capitalists in their countries where the harnessing of steam power to power machines gave capitalist production enormous advantages in producing goods cheaper than the older skilled craftsmen in other countries, production was oriented not to supply the real needs of the host countries, but used imperialistically to accumulate wealth and, above all, power over foreign lands in the hands of a very few Euro-American capitalists. 

You see, the capitalist system, because of its foundation on individual ownership of a social means of production, is not designed to serve the real needs of people but to supply wealth and power to a tiny class of people known as capitalists.

Nothing really has changed except that 21st century capitalists, instead of openly using gunboats, now prefer to use the most sophisticated propaganda and bribery to leaders of targeted nations, and propaganda to the general population in their host countries, to provide cover for their actions in pursuit of power and wealth. Cartalucci reports of the difficulties that the Empire is having with China while pursing these these policies and actions in southeast Asia.

Building common cause for social movement events

Click here to access article by David Spratt and David McKnight from Climate Code Red (Australia). 

Based on several decades of experience our Australian activist friends share with us what they have learned about organizing for a mass demonstration.

Here we reflect on some understandings from participating in the organising of such events over several decades, including peace and anti-war movements, for human rights and social and economic justice, in support of liberation struggles, and in the successful November 2015 People's Climate Marches. Some of these learnings may seem obvious, but that does not stop them from being overlooked.  This list is far from comprehensive!

How Much Do We Hate Our Children?

Click here to access article by Jeff Bryant from Uncommon Thought Journal. 

Bryant makes a strong case that most adults of our nation must hate their children, particularly children of poor families. However, in doing so he misses the larger picture of a ruling class that "hates" or neglects or exploits everyone who is powerless and vulnerable in society. That goes for the elderly, people with disabilities, the unskilled, the poor, the homeless, etc. 

Such behavior is to be expected of a class of people who are addicted to power and it's delivery system of wealth known as capitalism. Thus, it is not helpful to say or imply that "we", except for teachers, hate our children. We must accurately identify the origin of the problem if we are going to solve the abuse or neglect of our children and all the other problems that infect our society and the world.

Policing and Profit

Click here to access article from the Harvard Law Review. (Note: I was alerted to this article by a reader of the Real-World Economics Review Blog and posted on the latter blog. I am posting the article from the original source as a matter of policy, because it is free of errors, and contains very valuable references which the secondary posting lacks. Because the article is unsigned, the "About" section of this leading scholarly law journal indicates that it was written by a member-student or students who consist of 2nd and 3rd year law students at Harvard.) 

I was rather shocked by the extent of privatization of the legal system and the gross injustice and exploitation that poor citizens experience who become entangled in it. My second reaction was my astonishment that no one in alternative media had alerted us (as far as I know) to this kind of material last year, and my third reaction was astonishment that the ruling class are fully aware of their system of injustice for poor and minority people: much more so by coverage like this that targets the elite than ordinary citizens who have not had such experience with the judicial system.

When residents of Ferguson, Missouri, took to the streets last August to protest the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager killed by a white police officer, the events dramatically exposed an image of modern policing that most Americans rarely see: columns of police pointing military weaponry at peaceful protesters. But the ongoing tension between residents and police in Ferguson was also indicative of another, less visual development in how the police are used to oppress impoverished communities: using law enforcement to extract revenue from the poor.

Also, on the same subject, view this chart and read the brief explanation in a posting entitled "Charged with Immigration Offense" that shows how many private companies profit from the detention of immigrants to the US.

Who Owns the Zika Virus?

Click here to access article by Guillaume Kress from Global Research. 

Kress has uncovered some startling information ignored by mainstream media in this excellent example of investigative reporting. The information illustrates how capitalists will go to extreme lengths to convert everything they can into a commodity. The ownership of this particular commodity begs the question: who knows how they are using their "ownership" of this particular commodity to accumulate more profits and power?

Let Us Prey

Click here if you wish to access this cartoon by cartoonist Mike Konopacki directly from Huck/Konopacki Cartoons.