Click here to access article by Greg Grandin from The Nation.
Grandin lists some of the practical adverse effects that such a declaration may cause for Venezuelans and some information about the economic realities of life in Venezuela.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Thursday, March 26, 2015
The Saker interviews Paul Craig Roberts
Click here to access article from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard. (highly recommended read)
I, and many others, have often referred to a "deep state" or "shadow government": people who constitute the core directorate of the ruling capitalist class. For obvious reasons this knowledge is well hidden far below the official "democratic" mythology foisted on the American people via their control of all institutions of society. The "Saker" attempts in this interview to elicit from Paul Craig Roberts, as a former conservative participant near the corridors of power, his knowledge of this core directorate, and other important issues such as Israeli influence in US affairs and the prospects for a nuclear war with Russia.
I, and many others, have often referred to a "deep state" or "shadow government": people who constitute the core directorate of the ruling capitalist class. For obvious reasons this knowledge is well hidden far below the official "democratic" mythology foisted on the American people via their control of all institutions of society. The "Saker" attempts in this interview to elicit from Paul Craig Roberts, as a former conservative participant near the corridors of power, his knowledge of this core directorate, and other important issues such as Israeli influence in US affairs and the prospects for a nuclear war with Russia.
As Saudi Arabia and Allies Continue Airstrikes, Sorrow and Rage in Yemen
Click here to access article by Jon Queally from Common Dreams.
The never-ending wars perpetrated and/or backed by the Empire and its Medieval kingdom allies in the Middle East have just increased by one in Yemen.
The never-ending wars perpetrated and/or backed by the Empire and its Medieval kingdom allies in the Middle East have just increased by one in Yemen.
Airstrikes led by Saudi Arabia, and supported by other members of Gulf Cooperating Council and the U.S. government, continued to hit Yemen on Thursday as the situation in one of the world's most impoverished, yet strategically important countries continues to unravel amid what can only be described now as all-out war.
Reports indicates that a first wave of bombings overnight which resulted in a number of civilian deaths—including entire families trapped in flattened houses—have spurred widespread anger in Sanaa and other targeted cities, even among members of the population opposed to the Houthi rebels....
Stopping climate change: what do we mean by system change?
Click here to access article by Elaine Graham-Leigh from CounterFire (Britain).
I was very pleased to see this pitch for serious revolutionary change from a British left website. The British are famous for their watered downed versions of revolutionary struggles as manifested by their Fabian socialists in the early 20th century and the utopian socialists in the 19th century. The failures of these movements to change anything has caused some people to rethink revolutionary efforts. Graham-Leigh is one such person.
I was very pleased to see this pitch for serious revolutionary change from a British left website. The British are famous for their watered downed versions of revolutionary struggles as manifested by their Fabian socialists in the early 20th century and the utopian socialists in the 19th century. The failures of these movements to change anything has caused some people to rethink revolutionary efforts. Graham-Leigh is one such person.
There can often be a reluctance in green circles to talk explicitly about revolution, but ultimately that is what full-scale system change is. Calling it system change may allow the implication that we can get there one food co-op at a time, but this just hides the size and nature of the task we face. If we understand that what we are talking about when we talk about system change is, necessarily, overthrowing capitalism, then it follows that what we need is organisation: to think strategically about where the system is weakest, to make connections between different aspects of the struggle and to grasp the key link in the chain, the point at which we can make the most difference. Only then can serious changes be imposed upon capitalist interests.
Germany's balancing act
Click here to access article by William T. Hathaway from Uncommon Thought Journal.
This is a brief, but to the point, explanation of Merkel's ambiguous performance as Germany's chancellor who represents their capitalist class.
Last I heard from Hathaway, he was teaching at a German University. Hathaway has deep roots here in the Northwest region of the US.
This is a brief, but to the point, explanation of Merkel's ambiguous performance as Germany's chancellor who represents their capitalist class.
Last I heard from Hathaway, he was teaching at a German University. Hathaway has deep roots here in the Northwest region of the US.
Two videos – one politics, one philosophy
Click here to access article by David Malone from his blog Golem XIV.
The first video, “The Death of Democracy”, is a lengthy but very important explanation to a thinking general audience what the new neoliberal treaties, that are currently being negotiated in secret among various key figures in capitalist ruling classes, are all about. Hence, it is very important that we the people become informed about these new treaties which will likely have, if they are passed, a profound impact on ordinary working people throughout the world.
The title, "Death of Democracy", I interpret to mean the death of what little democracy already exists, at least for ordinary people. Democracy, which I take to mean as a participation in decision-making, largely exists among local capitalists; and their role as decision-makers is being challenged by transnational capitalists who are increasingly shaping the world of today.
I listened to very little of the second shorter video which featured a debate among a panel of three, one of which was David Malone, on the subject of science and its future in society.
The first video, “The Death of Democracy”, is a lengthy but very important explanation to a thinking general audience what the new neoliberal treaties, that are currently being negotiated in secret among various key figures in capitalist ruling classes, are all about. Hence, it is very important that we the people become informed about these new treaties which will likely have, if they are passed, a profound impact on ordinary working people throughout the world.
The title, "Death of Democracy", I interpret to mean the death of what little democracy already exists, at least for ordinary people. Democracy, which I take to mean as a participation in decision-making, largely exists among local capitalists; and their role as decision-makers is being challenged by transnational capitalists who are increasingly shaping the world of today.
[“The Death of Democracy”] is a public talk I gave recently on the TTIP trade agreement and its Investor State Dispute Settlement ISDS. I have been giving this talk up and down the country for most of the last two years, updating it as events have unfolded. Most of what I say is about the way Arbitration works, who the arbitrators are and what power arbitration gives to corporations.
I listened to very little of the second shorter video which featured a debate among a panel of three, one of which was David Malone, on the subject of science and its future in society.
Providing low-cost banking by saving the post office Mar26
Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder.
Dolack is always thinking, and this time offers an idea that could be the start of something big. However, because of that it will take a huge public effort to overcome opposition by our capitalist masters.
Dolack is always thinking, and this time offers an idea that could be the start of something big. However, because of that it will take a huge public effort to overcome opposition by our capitalist masters.
A Postal Service bank — a model that is successful in several countries around the world — would not only provide the post office with a reliable source of income, it would provide badly needed basic, inexpensive banking services for underserved populations.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Lies and Deceptions on the Left: The Politics of Self Destruction
Click here to access article by James Petras from Global Research.
I hesitate to be critical of Petras who has written extensively on political subjects that have shed much light on what is happening across the world. But in this piece unfortunately for the average reader Petras introduces a lot of confusion about the political choices that citizens in Greece, France, Brazil are facing. Mostly this has to do with the blurring of political parties under the post-WWII hegemony of the US Empire whose ruling class has done everything in its power to insure that choices people have are strictly within limits acceptable to capitalists. The "left" prior to this period meant anti-capitalist or advocates of public ownership of the economy.
This development was also aided by capitalist ruling class directors who had no compunctions about renaming parties to deceive people into thinking that they were pro-worker or even socialists advocating public ownership of the economy. (Keep in mind that even the right-wing fascists of German capitalists used the term "National Socialist German Workers' Party" as a label for their Nazi party.) Hence, the deliberate confusion spread about political terms used to describe parties and programs. Aside from naming parties "socialist" and making all kinds of promises that they never intended to keep, left bourgeois (capitalist) parties, with considerable support from the hegemonic US Empire, have been able to move the entire political spectrum from left to right by eliminating outright anti-capitalist parties.
Another source of confusion is the change in meaning of "liberal". In the classic sense derived from the early history of capitalism, the term was a synonym for capitalist. The generic meaning of "liberal" is freedom from restrictions, and naturally early capitalists strove to free themselves from restrictions on their economic activities by monarchical regimes. (This is precisely the reason that the term "neoliberalism" is used today to denote the supremacy of capitalist interests to override national boundaries--freedom from the restrictions posed by national governments.) Since then the term "liberal" has changed to a contemporary meaning to denote a much narrower sense: freedom from restrictions on the civil rights of citizens and the promotion of the welfare of citizens under capitalism. The only way one can distinguish the two meanings (classic and contemporary) is in the context which the term is used. I think that Petras in this piece adds to this confusion if one is not already aware of such capitalist deceptions and the changes of meaning of the term "liberal".
With this confusion cleared up, we now see that it is liberal (contemporary meaning) middle class people that constitute the "left" in these countries that he describes, and these people never were "left" in the traditional sense of being anti-capitalist advocating public ownership of the economy.
I hesitate to be critical of Petras who has written extensively on political subjects that have shed much light on what is happening across the world. But in this piece unfortunately for the average reader Petras introduces a lot of confusion about the political choices that citizens in Greece, France, Brazil are facing. Mostly this has to do with the blurring of political parties under the post-WWII hegemony of the US Empire whose ruling class has done everything in its power to insure that choices people have are strictly within limits acceptable to capitalists. The "left" prior to this period meant anti-capitalist or advocates of public ownership of the economy.
This development was also aided by capitalist ruling class directors who had no compunctions about renaming parties to deceive people into thinking that they were pro-worker or even socialists advocating public ownership of the economy. (Keep in mind that even the right-wing fascists of German capitalists used the term "National Socialist German Workers' Party" as a label for their Nazi party.) Hence, the deliberate confusion spread about political terms used to describe parties and programs. Aside from naming parties "socialist" and making all kinds of promises that they never intended to keep, left bourgeois (capitalist) parties, with considerable support from the hegemonic US Empire, have been able to move the entire political spectrum from left to right by eliminating outright anti-capitalist parties.
Another source of confusion is the change in meaning of "liberal". In the classic sense derived from the early history of capitalism, the term was a synonym for capitalist. The generic meaning of "liberal" is freedom from restrictions, and naturally early capitalists strove to free themselves from restrictions on their economic activities by monarchical regimes. (This is precisely the reason that the term "neoliberalism" is used today to denote the supremacy of capitalist interests to override national boundaries--freedom from the restrictions posed by national governments.) Since then the term "liberal" has changed to a contemporary meaning to denote a much narrower sense: freedom from restrictions on the civil rights of citizens and the promotion of the welfare of citizens under capitalism. The only way one can distinguish the two meanings (classic and contemporary) is in the context which the term is used. I think that Petras in this piece adds to this confusion if one is not already aware of such capitalist deceptions and the changes of meaning of the term "liberal".
With this confusion cleared up, we now see that it is liberal (contemporary meaning) middle class people that constitute the "left" in these countries that he describes, and these people never were "left" in the traditional sense of being anti-capitalist advocating public ownership of the economy.
Glyphosate "Probably" Causes Cancer: But Patrick Moore Says Drinking A Quart Does No Harm (Before Storming Out Of TV Interview)
Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from his blog East by Northwest.
On Friday 20 March, the World Health Organisation stated that the world's most widely-used weed killer can "probably" cause cancer. The WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said that glyphosate was "classified as probably carcinogenic to humans."Be sure to watch the hilarious interview on French TV with Patrick Moore who is an advocate of GM golden rice.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide.
Richard Smith's articles
On March 19th I posted information about what I thought was a new article from the Real-World Economics Review Blog by Richard Smith entitled "Green Capitalism: The God that Failed" which lay behind a paywall. I now discover that this title is only the title of one of five of his articles that have been published in the past by various websites. In other words, the March 19th posting "Green Capitalism: the God That Failed" is a misnomer--it contains five articles as chapters that Richard Smith has written in the past. Here are the articles and the links to them:
Chapter 1: How Did the Common Good Become a Bad Idea? The Eco-suicidal Economics of Adam Smith [June 2007 from the CNS Journal]
Chapter 2: Beyond Growth or Beyond Capitalism? [originally published in Real-World Economics Review in June 2010]
Chapter 3: Green Capitalism: the God That Failed [Jan. 2014 Truthout]
Chapter 4: Climate Crisis, the Deindustrialization Imperative, and the Jobs vs. Environment Dilemma [November 2014 Truthout]They are all excellent articles which focus on one of two central themes of my blog which is the fundamental conflict between capitalism and a sustainable biosphere--the other being that the operations of capitalism create wars, gross inequality, poverty, and all the various forms of the degradation of human life.
Chapter 5: Capitalism and the Destruction of Life on Earth: Six Theses on Saving the Humans [July 2013 Real-World Economics Review]
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Agent Orange Funding Opens Door To US Militarism And Covert Action In Vietnam
Click here to access article by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers from Mint Press News.
My, how times have changed! Back in the Vietnam War days we Americans were constantly hit by propaganda that portrayed Vietnam as only another domino that would fall to the "Communists" if we didn't stop them. This, of course, ignored the long history of acrimonious relations between China and Vietnam. And, it ignored the right of other countries to decide their own type of economy and government.
The Vietnamese won their war of independence from both France and the US--so what happened? Well, there is no communist government in Vietnam. As the truth about Vietnamese struggle for simply independence was completely overwhelmed by US capitalist ruling class propaganda, young American men and some women immediately signed up and went off to war, and all the atrocities and war crimes soon followed. (As I wrote this, I heard strains of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?".) After being over there, many soldiers turned against the war. But, when will people ever learn not to trust ruling class media as the American people are now doing with regard to Ukraine, Russia, and the endless wars in the Middle East? How many lies does it take for my countrymen to not believe, not even listen to, such war propaganda?
Meanwhile we see that the corporate-funded Congress is "buying into" the Ukraine war effort.
My, how times have changed! Back in the Vietnam War days we Americans were constantly hit by propaganda that portrayed Vietnam as only another domino that would fall to the "Communists" if we didn't stop them. This, of course, ignored the long history of acrimonious relations between China and Vietnam. And, it ignored the right of other countries to decide their own type of economy and government.
The Vietnamese won their war of independence from both France and the US--so what happened? Well, there is no communist government in Vietnam. As the truth about Vietnamese struggle for simply independence was completely overwhelmed by US capitalist ruling class propaganda, young American men and some women immediately signed up and went off to war, and all the atrocities and war crimes soon followed. (As I wrote this, I heard strains of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?".) After being over there, many soldiers turned against the war. But, when will people ever learn not to trust ruling class media as the American people are now doing with regard to Ukraine, Russia, and the endless wars in the Middle East? How many lies does it take for my countrymen to not believe, not even listen to, such war propaganda?
Meanwhile we see that the corporate-funded Congress is "buying into" the Ukraine war effort.
Google Doubles Down: Demands Review of All Antiwar.com Content
Click here to access article from Antiwar.
On Wednesday morning (3/18/15), Google AdSense suspended ad delivery to Antiwar.com demanding that we remove our 11-year-old pages that showed the abuse by US soldiers of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib. We publicized this and got a bit of coverage.
Yesterday (3/19/15) Google contacted us and told us that they had given in and would be restoring ad service to Antiwar.com shortly.
However, this morning they contacted us demanding that we remove this article.
Bombshell: land, ocean carbon sinks are weakening, making climate action more urgent
Click here to access article by Joe Romm from ThinkProgress.
We are destroying nature’s ability to help us stave off catastrophic climate change. That’s the bombshell conclusion of an under-reported 2014 study, “The declining uptake rate of atmospheric CO2 by land and ocean sinks,” as coauthor Dr. Josep (Pep) Canadell recently explained to me.
Monday, March 23, 2015
The Petrocurrency War
Click here to access article by Gulam Asgar Mitha from Oriental Review.
I think this and other developments that indicate a decline in the hegemony of the US dollar and the US Empire is sometimes written about in a much too casual way.
I think this and other developments that indicate a decline in the hegemony of the US dollar and the US Empire is sometimes written about in a much too casual way.
Under above scenarios, the 40 years of political and economic marriage of convenience between Saudi Arabia and the US would likely change. Iran could well emerge as the regional Middle East superpower and a close Chinese and Russian ally under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – a new OPEC with nuclear bombs as suggested in brevity by Professor David Wall in Matthew Brummer’s Journal of International Affairs The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Iran: A Power-Full Union. Could that well lead to World War 3 or history may refer to it as “the petrocurrency war”?By the way, a key reference link is missing for the Reuter's article from which Mitha extracts some key quotes:
As per a Reuters report of 9 March 2015 “the launch of the CIPS will remove one of the biggest hurdles to internationalizing the yuan and should greatly increase global usage of the Chinese currency by cutting transaction costs and processing times”. Reuters mentioned that “CIPS will become the superhighway for the yuan”.
Senator Cotton, Hitler, and 'Appeasement'
Click here to access article by Mickey Z. from World News Trust.
There has been so much re-formulation of the history of the Nazi party, Hitler's regime, the worldwide class war during the 1930s, and the collaboration of many capitalists throughout the West with the re-born Nazi regime after it obtained financial backing of German industrialists in 1933. Most histories would have you believe that Hitler magically went around hypnotizing people into following him.
The facts are that German capitalists and aristocrats finally decided to back Hitler and the Nazi party due to a combination of factors: ruling class fears of a worker's revolution, to cover up a scandal of major proportions involving the German aristocracy including the president of Germany Paul von Hindenburg, but most especially because of the backing of many German capitalists such as steel magnate Fritz Thyssen, major media owner Alfred Hugenberg, army generals such as Kurt von Schleicher, aristocrats such as Franz von Papen, many foreign capitalists consisting of bankers and industrialists such as W. Averell Harriman and Henry Ford from the US and other countries. Yes, even the father and grandfather of our two presidents--Prescott Bush! This information is well covered in chapter seven of a book entitled Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler by Antony Sutton.
German radicals had it right in this poster to the left which showed Hitler being backed by millions of dollars and German Reichsmarks.
There has been so much re-formulation of the history of the Nazi party, Hitler's regime, the worldwide class war during the 1930s, and the collaboration of many capitalists throughout the West with the re-born Nazi regime after it obtained financial backing of German industrialists in 1933. Most histories would have you believe that Hitler magically went around hypnotizing people into following him.
 |
| Millions are behind me! |
The facts are that German capitalists and aristocrats finally decided to back Hitler and the Nazi party due to a combination of factors: ruling class fears of a worker's revolution, to cover up a scandal of major proportions involving the German aristocracy including the president of Germany Paul von Hindenburg, but most especially because of the backing of many German capitalists such as steel magnate Fritz Thyssen, major media owner Alfred Hugenberg, army generals such as Kurt von Schleicher, aristocrats such as Franz von Papen, many foreign capitalists consisting of bankers and industrialists such as W. Averell Harriman and Henry Ford from the US and other countries. Yes, even the father and grandfather of our two presidents--Prescott Bush! This information is well covered in chapter seven of a book entitled Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler by Antony Sutton.
German radicals had it right in this poster to the left which showed Hitler being backed by millions of dollars and German Reichsmarks.
Eight Great Reads at the Journal of 9/11 Studies
Click here to access article by Kevin Ryan from Dig Within.
This former Site Manager for the environmental testing division of Underwriters Laboratories has chosen this selection as the most important among many articles that make it into the peer-reviewed scientific Journal of 9/11 Studies.
This former Site Manager for the environmental testing division of Underwriters Laboratories has chosen this selection as the most important among many articles that make it into the peer-reviewed scientific Journal of 9/11 Studies.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Europe Tilts East Towards China (Parts 1 and 2)
Click here and here if you wish to access the transcripts of these Real News Network interviews with economist Michael Hudson.
I promised in a posting last Tuesday that I would follow up on this new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank that has been organized by China as an alternative to the US dominated World Bank and the IMF. Here in these interviews Hudson offers his views on the significance of this new funding organization. I promise to continue to post articles from different credible sources on this subject.
I remain convinced that in the long range, capitalist ruling classes in China, Russia, etc. are only offering a more attractive model for funding development projects as a means of competing against the dominate capitalist gang in world affairs. So, what could be wrong with that? Well, the current top dog, the US Empire, in this vicious struggle for world dominance is baring its fangs in what is likely to be a fight-to-the-death. This is hardly good news for a peaceful world that desperately needs to devote all of its attention and resources toward weaning the world off of fossil fuels and creating economies that can function in harmony with a stable biosphere.
Also, Hudson apparently wants us to believe that the Chinese capitalist gang has some special virtues that the US capitalist gang lacks. I might grant this as a temporary phenomenon, but I remain solidly unconvinced that the Chinese gang or any other capitalist gang will function any differently in the long-run than the US led capitalist gang. Here is the way (which I believe is accurate) he describes the US gang's funding organizations:
I promised in a posting last Tuesday that I would follow up on this new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank that has been organized by China as an alternative to the US dominated World Bank and the IMF. Here in these interviews Hudson offers his views on the significance of this new funding organization. I promise to continue to post articles from different credible sources on this subject.
I remain convinced that in the long range, capitalist ruling classes in China, Russia, etc. are only offering a more attractive model for funding development projects as a means of competing against the dominate capitalist gang in world affairs. So, what could be wrong with that? Well, the current top dog, the US Empire, in this vicious struggle for world dominance is baring its fangs in what is likely to be a fight-to-the-death. This is hardly good news for a peaceful world that desperately needs to devote all of its attention and resources toward weaning the world off of fossil fuels and creating economies that can function in harmony with a stable biosphere.
Also, Hudson apparently wants us to believe that the Chinese capitalist gang has some special virtues that the US capitalist gang lacks. I might grant this as a temporary phenomenon, but I remain solidly unconvinced that the Chinese gang or any other capitalist gang will function any differently in the long-run than the US led capitalist gang. Here is the way (which I believe is accurate) he describes the US gang's funding organizations:
...the purpose of the World Bank lending [is] essentially for plantation export crops, for export crops to make countries avoid producing anything that might compete with American exports, above all grain, although every single mission of the World Bank, country mission, has recommended that countries undertake land reform and agricultural extension to help promote family farming and countries to feed themselves. The World Bank has not made loans for this.Now compare that with his view of the Chinese gang's funding organization:
The World Bank, under U.S. congressional pressure, has said, look, we're not going to finance countries becoming independent of the United States; our function is to make them export more to the United States and to buy from the United States.
...the Chinese Development Bank is to help make other countries get independent of this sort of neocon, neoliberal, right-wing economic philosophy and work government-to-government, help governments develop infrastructure, so that they can provide basic services at a lower cost or a subsidized cost, or even freely to the populations.Although he didn't present much evidence to back up this view, I have seen some that does. However, I don't for a second believe that Chinese capitalists are doing this for anything like altruistic reasons.
Why We Can’t Afford the Rich
Click here for a book review by Sean Ledwith regarding Why We Can't Afford the Rich by Andrew Sayer, posted on CounterFire (Britain).
[Sayer] expresses the supreme challenge of our times in stark terms: ‘capitalism is incompatible with saving the planet’. The title encapsulates the author’s conviction that capitalism has outlived any progressive tendencies it might have generated in the past in terms of revolutionising humanity’s productive capacity. The super-rich have jettisoned any form of useful economic agenda that might have had beneficial side-effects for the bulk of the world’s population, and are now blindly pursuing a tunnel-visioned stampede for profits.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
OVERdevelopment, OVERpopulation, OVERshoot
Click here to access the introduction to this book by the author William Ryerson, president of Population Media Center and CEO of the Population Institute. Posted on Post Carbon Institute.
Early in the introduction Ryerson writes:
I was first tipped off about this secret fact by a professor who specialized in population studies. I went to her back in the late 1970s because I wanted to take her course which was officially filled up. In one part of our interview she disclosed to me in rather hushed tones that existing population controls methods were missing the point of the reasons for the resistance by the targeted populations: large families were necessary to provide social supports for families that were otherwise missing in class structured societies. It is possible to find such documented evidence to support this argument, but one must look hard and long in population studies to find it. I quote one such source, page five from a book by Mohammed Sharif entitled Poverty Reduction - An Effective Means of Population Control:
Early in the introduction Ryerson writes:
Many of us today do recognize that the Earth and its resources are limited, yet too many people still cling to the notion that modern science and technology will enable us to defy physical limits. In the Middle Ages, alchemists sought in vain for a “philosopher’s stone” that would convert base metals into gold. They never succeeded. Why? Because what they were looking for did not, and could not, exist, because its existence would have violated the physical laws governing the universe.It's clear that he recognizes that we live on a finite planet, but he still proposes the same solution, direct population control methods, that have been tried for many decades with little in the way of results to show for this type of program. I accuse him of looking toward a solution that defies social laws or realities that govern human societies. I'm referring to the lack of social justice in class structured societies that undermines the health and safety of its citizens. This I firmly believe is a well-guarded secret that social scientists in capitalist societies refuse to acknowledge for reasons that I will shortly explain.
I was first tipped off about this secret fact by a professor who specialized in population studies. I went to her back in the late 1970s because I wanted to take her course which was officially filled up. In one part of our interview she disclosed to me in rather hushed tones that existing population controls methods were missing the point of the reasons for the resistance by the targeted populations: large families were necessary to provide social supports for families that were otherwise missing in class structured societies. It is possible to find such documented evidence to support this argument, but one must look hard and long in population studies to find it. I quote one such source, page five from a book by Mohammed Sharif entitled Poverty Reduction - An Effective Means of Population Control:
There are studies that show that children are not liabilities but assets to poor parents--they contribute to the family's current income and provide old-age security to the parents [he lists eight such studies]. Children, especially male children begin working at age as early as six year and by age 12 they completely pay off to their parents the total cost of their upbringing and in additions enough to cover the cost for one of their siblings [cites one study]. This suggest that larger the number of children, the greater is the net income for the parents and higher is the standard of living.Hence it is clear that the only real solution for over-population is a people's revolution to insure that their societies are run "of, by, and for the people". It is for that reason that this secret must be suppressed by capitalist authorities and that capitalist controlled websites such as Post Carbon Institute like to run such articles while ignoring the evidence that these programs don't work.
In the absence of any organized system of social security, during old age parents have to depend on supports from their children. This is especially so because people who live by the day and have no assets other than their physical labor are unable to save for their old age.
A Family Business of Perpetual War
Click here to access article by Robert Parry from ConsortiumNews.
To his credit Parry concludes his essay with a more balanced statement:
Neoconservative pundit Robert Kagan and his wife, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, run a remarkable family business: she has sparked a hot war in Ukraine and helped launch Cold War II with Russia – and he steps in to demand that Congress jack up military spending so America can meet these new security threats.However, I think that Parry puts much too much emphasis on these individual actors at the expense of a deeper analysis to reveal that what is happening is a class war between an advanced capitalist class that looks to imperialism to solve its inherent problems of debt and economic stagnation and a working class that is deceived by this ruling class into passivity toward their imperialist adventures.
This extraordinary husband-and-wife duo makes quite a one-two punch for the Military-Industrial Complex, an inside-outside team that creates the need for more military spending, applies political pressure to ensure higher appropriations, and watches as thankful weapons manufacturers lavish grants on like-minded hawkish Washington think tanks.
Yet, if it weren’t for Nuland’s efforts as Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, the Ukraine crisis might not exist.Do you really think that removing this "family business" would really change anything? Still, Zionist influence does help to see this how this faction's influence does magnify the huge problem of the Empire's trajectory toward conflicts that could easily result in a nuclear war.
To his credit Parry concludes his essay with a more balanced statement:
To be fair, the Nuland-Kagan mom-and-pop shop is really only a microcosm of how the Military-Industrial Complex has worked for decades: think-tank analysts generate the reasons for military spending, the government bureaucrats implement the necessary war policies, and the military contractors make lots of money before kicking back some to the think tanks — so the bloody but profitable cycle can spin again.
The only thing that makes the Nuland-Kagan operation special perhaps is that the whole process is all in the family.
Big Bank’s Analyst Worries That Iran Deal Could Depress Weapons Sales
Click here to access article by Lee Fang from The Intercept.
The possibility of an Iran nuclear deal depressing weapons sales was raised by Myles Walton, an analyst from Germany’s Deutsche Bank, during a Lockheed earnings call this past January 27th. Walton asked Marillyn Hewson, the chief executive of Lockheed Martin, if an Iran agreement could “impede what you see as progress in foreign military sales.” Financial industry analysts such as Walton use earnings calls as an opportunity to ask publicly-traded corporations like Lockheed about issues that might harm profitability.
Transformation or replication? On the aftermath of the Greek government shift
Click here to access article by Panos Petridis and Angelos Varvarousis from degrowth (Germany).
...there are several reasons to suggest that the prospect of flourishing alternatives is now brighter than before. Syriza’s rhetoric, although having been watered down significantly during the last couple of years, and especially after the recent elections, originally stems from a truly radical left background which is hard to discard totally. Furthermore, the legacy of the Greek “Indignados” in 2011 and the explosion of grassroots solidarity ventures that followed throughout the whole country, in combination with the clear delegitimation of the previous political order, indicate that a simple return to an austerity driven future will not be tolerated.
This trend is evident by the fact that after the first, largely symbolic actions of the new government, its approval rate has increased significantly, encompassing broader parts of the electorate which hadn’t voted for Syriza. Finally, possible political coalitions with potential governments in other countries of the European south, notably Podemos in Spain, are now more likely than before. .... This view of Syriza transforming Europe may be nothing but a social construct, but social constructs do affect reality too!
Friday, March 20, 2015
Climate Justice and Degrowth: a tale of two movements
Click here to access article by Tadzio MĂĽller from degrowth (Germany).
In the run-up to last year’s United Nations Climate Conference in Lima, Peru, a particular headline kept popping up, an attempt to once again establish a particular meme in the mind of global elites as well as wider populations: friends, the line goes, you’re right to worry about climate change, but...what you really, really shouldn’t do, is start believing that worrying about climate change should make you worry about trying to end economic growth’. Economic growth, so the story goes once again, can in fact be made to work very nicely with climate protection, if only it’s done the right way.MĂĽller examines the differences between the two movements and then finds a common path that both can merge on that can effectively fight the above position of capitalist elites.
Money as Debt
Click here to access this latest edition of his website which lists many of Paul Grignon's explanatory works on the subject of money. Grignon is a rugged individualist and iconoclast who has dedicated much of his life to understanding money.
The subject of money and debts has long been obscured by people who benefit from people's ignorance: bankers and other financiers who make up the core decision-makers of capitalist societies. Their control of money as sovereign debt is a layer of activity superimposed on normal capitalist practices which exploit the labor of people and natural resources of our home, the planet Earth. They reap enormous benefits in terms of wealth and power from our ignorance of how money and debts are created.
Bankers are not especially clever people, but they have learned over several millennia how to control the issuance of money and to have their money backed by the power of the state. They are then called central banks which is a bank owned by a consortium of banks and granted a monopoly by a government to issue its money. Major bankers have been able to achieve this feat and get away with it because they are the core part of any capitalist ruling class. They play a key role in what gets produced in any society, and of course, what gets produced is always the most profitable to them regardless of consequences to society. War is the most extreme example.
For more information to help you to understand money creation, I recommend two other sources. The first, called Wizards of Money [broken link--try this] is organized as a series of (audio) lessons designed by someone by the pseudonym of "Smithy". (Transcripts can also be accessed under the "Reference" column.) Smithy has degrees in mathematics and economics, and she works as a consultant calculating investment risk for financial institutions. For this reason, she can't reveal her real name. I also highly recommend a book entitled The Lost Science of Money by Stephen Zarlenga, but it is rather expensive. The latter book traces the 2000 years history of the development of money that has evolved into what we have today.
The subject of money and debts has long been obscured by people who benefit from people's ignorance: bankers and other financiers who make up the core decision-makers of capitalist societies. Their control of money as sovereign debt is a layer of activity superimposed on normal capitalist practices which exploit the labor of people and natural resources of our home, the planet Earth. They reap enormous benefits in terms of wealth and power from our ignorance of how money and debts are created.
Bankers are not especially clever people, but they have learned over several millennia how to control the issuance of money and to have their money backed by the power of the state. They are then called central banks which is a bank owned by a consortium of banks and granted a monopoly by a government to issue its money. Major bankers have been able to achieve this feat and get away with it because they are the core part of any capitalist ruling class. They play a key role in what gets produced in any society, and of course, what gets produced is always the most profitable to them regardless of consequences to society. War is the most extreme example.
For more information to help you to understand money creation, I recommend two other sources. The first, called Wizards of Money [broken link--try this] is organized as a series of (audio) lessons designed by someone by the pseudonym of "Smithy". (Transcripts can also be accessed under the "Reference" column.) Smithy has degrees in mathematics and economics, and she works as a consultant calculating investment risk for financial institutions. For this reason, she can't reveal her real name. I also highly recommend a book entitled The Lost Science of Money by Stephen Zarlenga, but it is rather expensive. The latter book traces the 2000 years history of the development of money that has evolved into what we have today.
Blockupy protesters crash ECB housewarming party
Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Reflections on a Revolution.
Not only do the demonstrations in Frankfurt serve to re-politicize the ECB and its monetary policy; they are also laying the groundwork for the emergence of a transnational movement against the rule of finance, bringing the resistance to austerity right into the heart of the European crisis regime.
Renewables cannot sustain the globalized growth-economy
Click here to access article by Almuth Ernsting from degrowth (Germany).
Ernsting examines the most advanced uses of renewable energy as practiced in Scotland and Denmark and reaches the following conclusion:
Ernsting examines the most advanced uses of renewable energy as practiced in Scotland and Denmark and reaches the following conclusion:
Any meaningful response to climate change must involve rapidly phasing out fossil fuel use while protecting remaining ecosystems, including healthy soils, and restoring and allowing as many damaged ecosystems as possible to regenerate. Wind and solar power, depending on where they are sited, can be amongst the ‘lowest-impact’ and ‘lowest-carbon’ forms of energy, so their expansion will indeed need to be supported. But ‘lowest-impact’ is far from ‘low impact’, and lower carbon is nowhere near ‘zero carbon’. Nor, as we have seen, is it realistic to expect such forms of energy to replace current fossil fuel use, and certainly not in the time necessary to prevent the most disastrous effects of climate change. Moving towards a low-energy society remains the only path for avoiding a climate catastrophe. [my emphasis]This conclusion obviously means that we must end capitalism and move immediately to a sustainable social system if we as humans are to have any hope of survival.
UN: torture in Mexico occurs with 'impunity' at hands of security forces
Click here to access article by Jo Tuckman from The Guardian.
Torture and massacres and now beheadings seem to be the hallmark of the US's NAFTA partner to the south. If it is true that you can judge a person or entity by the company they keep (beheaders in Saudi Arabia, neo-Nazis in Ukraine, etc), we are in deep doo-doo.
Torture and massacres and now beheadings seem to be the hallmark of the US's NAFTA partner to the south. If it is true that you can judge a person or entity by the company they keep (beheaders in Saudi Arabia, neo-Nazis in Ukraine, etc), we are in deep doo-doo.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Green Capitalism: The God that Failed
Click here to access article by Richard Smith from Real-World Economics Review Blog.
I regard Richard Smith as one of the leading authors who best exposes the fatal flaws in capitalism. He authored the foundation article for this website entitled Capitalism and the destruction of life on Earth: Six theses on saving the humans.
Smith in this brief article introduces his new book entitled Green Capitalism: The God that Failed. (Unfortunately for people like me who prefer to read hard copies, this one is published only in a digital format [for $10].) With reference to this new book, he writes:
I regard Richard Smith as one of the leading authors who best exposes the fatal flaws in capitalism. He authored the foundation article for this website entitled Capitalism and the destruction of life on Earth: Six theses on saving the humans.
Smith in this brief article introduces his new book entitled Green Capitalism: The God that Failed. (Unfortunately for people like me who prefer to read hard copies, this one is published only in a digital format [for $10].) With reference to this new book, he writes:
I show that the theorists and proponents of no-growth or de-growth like Herman Daly or Tim Jackson are correct in arguing that infinite economic growth is not possible on a finite planet but that they’re wrong to imagine that capitalism can be refashioned as a kind of “steady state” economy, let alone actually “degrow” without provoking economic collapse. There are further problems with this model, which I also investigate. I show that the theorists and proponents of “green capitalism” such as Paul Hawkin, Lester Brown and Frances Cairncross are wrong to think that tech miracles, “dematerialization,” new efficiencies, recycling and the like will permit us to growth the global economy more or less forever without consuming and polluting ourselves to death.
Minsk Peace Deal for Ukraine is Falling Apart
Click here to access article by Alexander Mercouris from Russia Insider.
Its final collapse and the resumption of the war is probably some weeks away. Both sides will want to use the spring and early summer to reorganise and refit their forces before fighting resumes in earnest. At that point however the fighting will resume. Given the balance of forces it will end with another Ukrainian defeat and another militia victory. Ukraine's downward spiral will continue until the process ends in the only way it can with the collapse of the present government in Kiev.With the Empire's German vassal, Angela Merkel, too weak to oppose the Empire's plans to engage Russia in a never-ending war of attrition, the resumption of the war is inevitable. Only the united opposition to the war by the people of Europe can stop it.
Real unemployment is double the ‘official’ unemployment rate
Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder.
Dolack explains how capitalists issue deceptive reports about unemployment in order to legitimate a system of endless growth that is creating this unemployment; and thereby causing workers worldwide over time to enjoy less and "owners" to enjoy more of worker productivity while destroying the very biosphere on which humanity depends. The end result?
Dolack explains how capitalists issue deceptive reports about unemployment in order to legitimate a system of endless growth that is creating this unemployment; and thereby causing workers worldwide over time to enjoy less and "owners" to enjoy more of worker productivity while destroying the very biosphere on which humanity depends. The end result?
We have only one Earth. And that one Earth is in the grips of a system that takes at a pace that, unless reversed, will leave it a wrecked hulk while throwing ever more people into poverty and immiseration. That this can go on indefinitely is the biggest fantasy.
Breaking the Resistance with Terrorism and Proxy Wars
Click here to access article by Eric Draitser from New Eastern Outlook.
There is so much deliberate confusion and obfuscation purveyed in Western media about the nature of the numerous conflicts in Syria and adjacent areas. Draitser makes a constructive contribution toward understanding the geopolitical realities of these conflicts.
There is so much deliberate confusion and obfuscation purveyed in Western media about the nature of the numerous conflicts in Syria and adjacent areas. Draitser makes a constructive contribution toward understanding the geopolitical realities of these conflicts.
The US-NATO-GCC-Israel alliance has not needed to put its own boots on the ground to achieve its strategic objectives. Instead, it is relying on irregular warfare, proxy terror wars, and small-scale destabilizations to achieve by stealth what it cannot achieve with military might alone.
But it remains paramount for all those interested in peace to make these connections, to understand the broad outlines of this vast covert war taking place. To see a war in Syria in isolation is to misunderstand its very nature. To see ISIS alone as the problem is to completely misread the essence of the conflict. This is a battle for regional hegemony, and in order to attain it, the Empire is employing every tool in the imperial toolkit, with terrorism being one of the most effective.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Washington’s War on Russia
Click here to access article by Mike Whitney from CounterPunch.
The United States cannot allow Russia reap the benefits of its own vast resources. Oh, no. It has to be chastised, it has to be bullied, it has to be sanctioned, isolated, threatened and intimidated. That’s how the [capitalist] system really works. The free market stuff is just horsecrap for the sheeple.What Whitney really explains is that in this advanced stage of capitalism, the Empire's capitalist directors really have no choice but to impose chaos on Russia. But, the knowledgeable and peace loving workers of the world have choices, and they need to start making them now.
Russia is going to have to deal with chaotic, fratricidal wars on its borders and color-coded regime change turbulence in its capital. It will have to withstand reprisals from its trading partners, attacks on its currency and plots to eviscerate its (oil) revenues. The US will do everything in its power to poison the well, to demonize Putin, to turn Brussels against Moscow, and to sabotage the Russian economy.
Divide and conquer, that’s the ticket.
Russia’s Remarkable Renaissance
Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook.
Engdahl and Pepe Escobar are the champions of what they describe as a new multipolar world. It is a world where multiple centers of capitalist ruling classes exist where no one is dominate. They see the BRICS as one set of countries which can offset the power of the existing US Empire. I and other leftists only see this as a replay of the 20th century in which capitalist ruling classes vied for world dominance. To be sure, capitalist ruling classes in Russia and China do not as yet exhibit evidence of imperial designs, but that is only because of their recent emergence as powerful players.
Yet, I find what Engdahl reports about the new generation of young Russians to be very interesting. They have roots in both a highly centralized, bureaucratic socialism and capitalism. Who knows in what direction they might take Russia?
Engdahl and Pepe Escobar are the champions of what they describe as a new multipolar world. It is a world where multiple centers of capitalist ruling classes exist where no one is dominate. They see the BRICS as one set of countries which can offset the power of the existing US Empire. I and other leftists only see this as a replay of the 20th century in which capitalist ruling classes vied for world dominance. To be sure, capitalist ruling classes in Russia and China do not as yet exhibit evidence of imperial designs, but that is only because of their recent emergence as powerful players.
Yet, I find what Engdahl reports about the new generation of young Russians to be very interesting. They have roots in both a highly centralized, bureaucratic socialism and capitalism. Who knows in what direction they might take Russia?
Something remarkable is taking place in Russia, and it’s quite different from what we might expect. Rather than feel humiliated and depressed Russia is undergoing what I would call a kind of renaissance, a rebirth as a nation. This despite or in fact because the West, led by the so-called neo-conservatives in Washington, is trying everything including war on her doorstep in Ukraine, to collapse the Russian economy, humiliate Putin and paint Russians generally as bad. In the process, Russia is discovering positive attributes about her culture, her people, her land that had long been forgotten or suppressed.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Thoughts on Libertarian Municipalism
Click here to access article by Murray Bookchin reposted from 2000 on Eagainst website (Greece).
The American leftist truth-seeker spent his life going through various iterations of political orientations to arrive at what he refers to as Libertarian Municipalism as the political unit of what he calls Communalism in which confederated libertarian municipals would replace the state, a capitalist construction. Today his ideas are clearly influencing radical leaders in many strife ridden areas of the world such as Kurdish Rojava area of Syria (see this), the FARC revolutionary movement in Columbia, and among leftist Greeks who are fighting for their very survival.
The American leftist truth-seeker spent his life going through various iterations of political orientations to arrive at what he refers to as Libertarian Municipalism as the political unit of what he calls Communalism in which confederated libertarian municipals would replace the state, a capitalist construction. Today his ideas are clearly influencing radical leaders in many strife ridden areas of the world such as Kurdish Rojava area of Syria (see this), the FARC revolutionary movement in Columbia, and among leftist Greeks who are fighting for their very survival.
Libertarian municipalism is...based on the proposition that we now have the technology for a post-scarcity economy—one that can potentially abolish mindless toil and possibly most of the work that enters into industrial production today. In such a world, the communist ideal of “from each according to ability, to each according to needs” would be historically and technically feasible. ....
The world is changing now at a pace that is absolutely stunning. If capitalism does not destroy the biosphere, then in possibly thirty, certainly fifty years the world that survives will be changed beyond our imagination. Not only will the peasant world be gone, but so too will much of the “nature” we often call “wild.” The automation of industry will probably reach incredible proportions, and the earth’s features will be vastly transformed.
U.S. war moves in Ukraine: Watch what they do, not what they say
Click here to access article by Greg Butterfield from Workers World.
Yes, indeed, this latest Empire imperialist adventure has been covered over with a thick layer of lies like manure spread over a field to encourage plant growth--only here it was applied to deceive the American public into going along with their latest adventure targeting Russia. Unbeknownst to most Americans are the ongoing provocations that the Empire directors are using to intimidate Russia. Butterfield lists many of them. I follow such NATO hair-raising provocations through the Stop NATO website.
Yes, indeed, this latest Empire imperialist adventure has been covered over with a thick layer of lies like manure spread over a field to encourage plant growth--only here it was applied to deceive the American public into going along with their latest adventure targeting Russia. Unbeknownst to most Americans are the ongoing provocations that the Empire directors are using to intimidate Russia. Butterfield lists many of them. I follow such NATO hair-raising provocations through the Stop NATO website.
Throughout Europe, the Baltic and Central Asian states bordering Russia, and even on U.S. soil, an unprecedented volume of provocative war games are underway, all clearly threatening Moscow.
Why? Because the real aim of the U.S. power play in Ukraine is to establish NATO military power on Russia’s border, with the aim of fomenting regime change aimed at breaking up the Russian Federation into pliable, profitable pieces that can be easily dominated by Wall Street and its European junior partners.
Iran Sends Missiles to Iraq: US Finally Shows Concern for Sectarianism, Civilian Casualties
Click here to access article by Jim White from emptywheel.
Before the US-British invasion of Iraq the relations between Muslim sects were very much like the various denominations of Christians in the US. But soon after the invasion we started reading reports of mysterious bombings of mosques in Iraq and the blame put on other Muslim sects. Then there was the mysterious report of British soldiers dressed up like Arabs who were arrested by Iraqi police for carrying numerous weapons and explosives. Following their arrest they were just as mysteriously rescued by the British army using tanks in an assault on the prison where they were being held. No official explanation was ever offered and the story soon disappeared down the capitalist media black hole.
The hubris involved in the US suggesting that Iran’s missiles could inflame sectarianism or cause civilian casualties is nothing short of staggering. But none of the idiots engaging in this hand-wringing will ever be forced to account for the real source of sectarian tensions and civilian casualties in Iraq.Stirring up sectarian tensions has been a primary strategy of the Zionist-conservatives (euphemistically known as neocons) that have taken control of US foreign policies in the Middle East since 9/11. All actions toward this end have been supported by these ideologues whose interest was/is to encourage Muslims to kill other Muslims.
Before the US-British invasion of Iraq the relations between Muslim sects were very much like the various denominations of Christians in the US. But soon after the invasion we started reading reports of mysterious bombings of mosques in Iraq and the blame put on other Muslim sects. Then there was the mysterious report of British soldiers dressed up like Arabs who were arrested by Iraqi police for carrying numerous weapons and explosives. Following their arrest they were just as mysteriously rescued by the British army using tanks in an assault on the prison where they were being held. No official explanation was ever offered and the story soon disappeared down the capitalist media black hole.
Towards The End Of The U.S. Dominated International Money System
Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.
Welcome to the end of Brenton Woods and the Washington Consensus that defined the world money systems around U.S. controlled institutions and the U.S. dollar as the sole reserve currency.I am perplexed by this and similar reports (see this and this), and most authors blithely see this as the end of the US dollar as the world's dominate currency. My surprise is compounded by such staunch American vassals as Britain, France, and Germany also joining the new financial institution organized by China. Because the US dollar is an integral part of maintaining US Empire rule, it doesn't make much sense. See if you can make sense out of it. I will await further commentaries from other financially well-informed people.
Monday, March 16, 2015
The Origin of the ‘New Cold War’
Click here to access article by Eric Zuesse from Oriental Review.
Zuesse puts together the mountain of evidence, much of it captured on videos, to show the history of US preparations to overthrow the legitimate government of the Ukraine on the border of Russia. Then he goes even further by presenting evidence of US grand designs for world domination following WWII when Operation Gladio program was established to counter any left-wing political party aspirations in Western Europe which Zuesse sees as the origins of the old Cold War. The violent overthrow of Ukraine by US operatives is the start of the "New Cold War" with Russia.
Unfortunately, he muddles his analysis by using a term from another social system and from another era: "aristocracies". This diverts attention away from the accurate designation of the current social system known as capitalism and avoids targeting capitalists as constituting the new ruling class who vie with other capitalists for world domination. Thus, history is reduced to ghoulish actors engaging in satanic acts because...well, that's what "evil-doers" do. A constructive alternative would be to analyze such events within the framework of capitalist dynamics by examining what it is about capitalism that produces such devious aggressions and wars against independent countries.
Zuesse puts together the mountain of evidence, much of it captured on videos, to show the history of US preparations to overthrow the legitimate government of the Ukraine on the border of Russia. Then he goes even further by presenting evidence of US grand designs for world domination following WWII when Operation Gladio program was established to counter any left-wing political party aspirations in Western Europe which Zuesse sees as the origins of the old Cold War. The violent overthrow of Ukraine by US operatives is the start of the "New Cold War" with Russia.
Unfortunately, he muddles his analysis by using a term from another social system and from another era: "aristocracies". This diverts attention away from the accurate designation of the current social system known as capitalism and avoids targeting capitalists as constituting the new ruling class who vie with other capitalists for world domination. Thus, history is reduced to ghoulish actors engaging in satanic acts because...well, that's what "evil-doers" do. A constructive alternative would be to analyze such events within the framework of capitalist dynamics by examining what it is about capitalism that produces such devious aggressions and wars against independent countries.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
US Intel Stands Pat on MH-17 Shoot-down
Click here to access article by Robert Parry from ConsortiumNews.
Last July, the MH-17 tragedy quickly became a lightning rod in a storm of anti-Russian propaganda, blaming the deaths personally on Russian President Vladimir Putin and resulting in European and American sanctions against Russia which pushed the crisis in Ukraine to a dangerous new level.
Yet, after getting propaganda mileage out of the tragedy – and after I reported on the growing doubts within the U.S. intelligence community about whether the Russians and the rebels were indeed responsible – the Obama administration went silent.
In other words, after U.S. intelligence analysts had time to review the data from spy satellites and various electronic surveillance, including phone intercepts, the Obama administration didn’t retract its initial rush to judgment – tossing blame on Russia and the rebels – but provided no further elaboration either.
This strange behavior reinforces the suspicion that the U.S. government possesses information that contradicts its initial rush to judgment, but senior officials don’t want to correct the record because to do so would embarrass them and weaken the value of the tragedy as a propaganda club to pound the Russians.
Senate Committee Secretly Approves New Domestic Spying Measures
Click here to access article by Justin King from The Fifth Column.
While the government is attempting to cast it as a cybersecurity measure, the bill is only designed to allow companies to share your information with the government and other companies. It also allows the government to turn over your information to private companies.
The spying bill is named the “Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act” [CISA]. Only one senator voted against the bill, and it passed in the secret committee with bipartisan approval. It still seems the only thing the parties can agree on is taking away your rights and establishing control systems to keep you in your place.
The American Deep State: An Interview with Peter Dale Scott
Click here to access the links to the KPFA (listener sponsored radio station in Berkeley, CA) interview (approximately 1 hour) and the transcript. (I updated my commentary, 8AM 3/16/2015)
Former Canadian ambassador and UC professor Peter Dale Scott has studied and reported on the "deep state" for a least 50 years. The concept of a Deep State ("shadow government", etc.) is one which functions outside of the purview of the public. This is an essential component of the US contemporary capitalist class rule which originally came to power in 1776 proclaiming democratic themes as a way to enlist the help of the working class against the British aristocracy and monarchy.
Thus after achieving class power, they were saddled with this democratic ideology ("government of the people, by the people, and for the people") and have had to deal with it ever since. The main way was to secure their power of money and property from any interference from government. In the US the first step was to replace the Articles of Confederation which permitted far too much democracy with the US Constitution which gave the embryonic capitalist class much more direct control. Since then this new ruling class used indoctrination as an essential way to insure that people growing up would be thoroughly immersed in capitalist values. In the 20th century this class secured control of most information that reached the public by increasing their ownership of media under giant media corporations.
Following WWII the US capitalist class embarked on a project of world domination and thus had to establish more insidious methods of parallel private networks of authority to function whenever public opposition and government posed problems for their interests. The Deep State, as used by Scott, is a term applied to the latter form of power and it essentially applies to the Continuity of Government project whenever the rule of major capitalists is threatened.
This is where I part company with Scott who very specifically and narrowly focuses on this project. My concept of a Deep State is much broader. It is an informal, class-based network of major capitalists and encompasses all the levers of power from powerful think tanks such as Council on Foreign Relations, Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Trilateral Commission, Rand, Ford Foundation, etc, and the Federal Reserve to their more operational organizations such as the CIA, NSA, etc, National Security Council, CIA infiltrated media corporations, etc. None of the participants in these organizations are voted into membership by the people. Their influence on what the government does is rarely covered in corporate media. How this complex of organizations mediate and operationalize their decisions remains a mystery.
Former Canadian ambassador and UC professor Peter Dale Scott has studied and reported on the "deep state" for a least 50 years. The concept of a Deep State ("shadow government", etc.) is one which functions outside of the purview of the public. This is an essential component of the US contemporary capitalist class rule which originally came to power in 1776 proclaiming democratic themes as a way to enlist the help of the working class against the British aristocracy and monarchy.
Thus after achieving class power, they were saddled with this democratic ideology ("government of the people, by the people, and for the people") and have had to deal with it ever since. The main way was to secure their power of money and property from any interference from government. In the US the first step was to replace the Articles of Confederation which permitted far too much democracy with the US Constitution which gave the embryonic capitalist class much more direct control. Since then this new ruling class used indoctrination as an essential way to insure that people growing up would be thoroughly immersed in capitalist values. In the 20th century this class secured control of most information that reached the public by increasing their ownership of media under giant media corporations.
Following WWII the US capitalist class embarked on a project of world domination and thus had to establish more insidious methods of parallel private networks of authority to function whenever public opposition and government posed problems for their interests. The Deep State, as used by Scott, is a term applied to the latter form of power and it essentially applies to the Continuity of Government project whenever the rule of major capitalists is threatened.
There is the settled condition of the deep state and then there is this moving force that has been instituting change, particularly since 9/11 but as far back as Iran-Contra, and that is things which are done under the cover of Continuity of Government planning, COG planning. This is what Oliver North was doing in the mid-1980s when he was asked, very astutely, if he was planning for suspension of the US Constitution. And the answer was – he didn’t get to speak the answer. A gavel came down from the chairman – the Democratic chairman, I may say – that we couldn’t go into this in a public session. But yes, he was planning for the suspension of the Constitution and I can name three ways in which I think it has been since suspended.
This is where I part company with Scott who very specifically and narrowly focuses on this project. My concept of a Deep State is much broader. It is an informal, class-based network of major capitalists and encompasses all the levers of power from powerful think tanks such as Council on Foreign Relations, Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Trilateral Commission, Rand, Ford Foundation, etc, and the Federal Reserve to their more operational organizations such as the CIA, NSA, etc, National Security Council, CIA infiltrated media corporations, etc. None of the participants in these organizations are voted into membership by the people. Their influence on what the government does is rarely covered in corporate media. How this complex of organizations mediate and operationalize their decisions remains a mystery.
Feudalism, Fascism, Libertarianism and Economics
Click here to access the introduction of this new book, authored by Eric Zeusse, by the editor of Real-World Economics Review whose parent company is the publisher of the book.
Existing microeconomic theory is proven false by a now overwhelming body of empirical evidence. ....
.... The source of microeconomic theory is actually the need those aristocrats felt, to “justify” their wealth. That’s what produced this theory – the theory that’s now known to be false (but that remains helpful to today’s aristocrats and is thus still financed heavily by them).
Our historical account starts by describing the attempt by the DuPont brothers and other American aristocrats in 1933-34 to overthrow FDR and to replace him by a dictator patterned upon the neo-feudalists (“fascists”) Hitler and Mussolini.Referred to here is the little known historical incident of the attempt to overthrow the US government by right-wing American capitalists (some funded the Nazi Party in Germany) using retired General Smedley Butler. This history has been widely suppressed by our masters so that few Americans are aware of it. You can learn the details in an excellent book by Jules Archer entitled The Plot to Seize the White House.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Selma, Obama and the Colonization of Black Resistance
Click here to access article by Ajamu Baraka from CounterPunch.
Referring to Obama as the "master propagandist", Baraka writes how Obama is being used by ruling class elites much like M. L. King was used back in the 1950s and '60s, to contain and co-opt Black resistance. However, they soon learned that King was not so easily co-opted. Thus, King had to be assassinated when he attempted to link up the anti-Vietnam War movement with the Civil Rights Movement.
Referring to Obama as the "master propagandist", Baraka writes how Obama is being used by ruling class elites much like M. L. King was used back in the 1950s and '60s, to contain and co-opt Black resistance. However, they soon learned that King was not so easily co-opted. Thus, King had to be assassinated when he attempted to link up the anti-Vietnam War movement with the Civil Rights Movement.
Today Barack Obama in his role as the President of the U.S. and chief spokesperson for the white ruling class, and as a representative of the “new” black professional-managerial class, has been assigned the task to explain and legitimate the ongoing subjugation of the black poor and working class five decades after the reform legislation of the 60s.And later in the essay the author concludes:
The message that Obama’s speech was meant to convey was that despite killer-cops, mass incarceration and grinding poverty no one should be confused: you will not split black folks away from the state because these black folks belong to us.
And judging by the paucity of criticism or even discussion of the Department of Justice’s decision last week not to indict Wilson and the unrestrained praise of Obama’s speech in various black media outlets, it is once again mission accomplished for the propagandist in chief.
The State Against The Republic
Click here to access article by Thierry Meyssan from VoltaireNet.
At the request of President François Hollande, the French Socialist Party has published a note on the international “conspiracy theorist" movement. His goal: to prepare new legislation prohibiting it to express itself. In the US, the September 11, 2001 coup established a "permanent state of emergency" (Patriot Act), launching a series of imperial wars. Gradually, the European elites have aligned with their counterparts across the Atlantic. Everywhere, people are worried about being abandoned by their States and they question their institutions. Seeking to retain power, the elites are now ready to use force to gag their opposition.
How agriculture grew on us
Click here to access article by "leavergirl" (Vera Bradova) from her blog Leaving Babylon.
The author takes us back to earlier geologic time periods in an attempt to understand the origins of some of the important problems that we face in today's civilization.
The author takes us back to earlier geologic time periods in an attempt to understand the origins of some of the important problems that we face in today's civilization.
Human beings of the race that calls itself Homo sapiens lived in relative equality, in small foraging bands all its existence from the time they emerged about 200,000 years ago. Then, around 30,000 years ago, during a bit more clement time within the last ice age, glimmerings of inequality arose at sites known in Europe — in places that were unusually plentiful in game.Also along the same lines of thought, she posts (in the comments section) a fascinating video (YouTube) entitled "Lord Man Parable" which is a story used to illustrate how humans began to see themselves as separate from the nature of our planet and started having delusions about having dominion over this nature.
Police used Ferguson citizens as revenue stream
[The Dept. of Justice Report] describes a city government that uses its police and courts as an ATM, tolerating a culture of police brutality while pressuring the police chief and court officials to increase traffic enforcement and fees without regard to public safety.
It exposes a court run by the police department that routinely violates due process and intentionally inflicts pain on the most vulnerable residents and whose supervisors circulated racially insensitive emails, one of which in 2011 depicted President Barack Obama as a chimpanzee.
A real ambassador of the real USA in Iran (Jazz music in Iran)
Click here if you wish to access this from the original posting on A Bird's eye view of the Vineyard.
Friday, March 13, 2015
350.org: Selling a Lie
Click here to access article from SeeMoreRocks.
As we have come to know 350.org is receiving funding from corporate America and even talks about "our friends in Wall Street". The line comes down from the top: from McKibben, and his "friends in Wall Street" tell McKIbben what the acceptable message is.
The aim is to obfuscate and take the discussion away from the realities that show that climate change is NOW and that, with a growing number of positive self-reinforcing feedbacks (including the growing release into the atmosphere of a gas, methane, that is a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. the train has long left the station.
Recycling in the Anthropocene
Click here to access article by Bill Sheehan from the Post Carbon Institute.
Sadly, just as land conservation and species preservation efforts have largely failed to stem rates of deforestation and extinctions, so too has the recycling movement failed miserably to stem the tide of resource wasting and pollution. The brutal truth is that individualized “recycling” in the context of municipal solid waste management barely makes a dent in the throughput of materials in the global economy. Despite earnest efforts by many, resource consumption and pollution is increasing, and at an increasing rate.
.... Samantha MacBride summed it up well in Recycling Reconsidered: larger waste streams had been rendered invisible, and individualized responsibility for waste and recycling had co-opted more meaningful approaches. UPSTREAM focused on producer responsibility as a paradigm shift that could, in theory, address the problems at the source.
The 9/11 Commission Didn’t Believe the Government … So Why Should We?
Click here to access article from Washington's Blog.
This blogger documents how members of the 9/11 Commission found their investigative work blocked at many key points, and questioned information obtained through torture which reinforced the official explanation of 9/11.
This blogger documents how members of the 9/11 Commission found their investigative work blocked at many key points, and questioned information obtained through torture which reinforced the official explanation of 9/11.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
How Iran and the US intersect in “Syraq”
Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from RT.
Escobar secures for us some realities that lay hidden behind the piles of lies used by Empire directors to sell their terrorist wars to gullible Americans. The scriptwriters for the Empire's media must be suffering headaches from trying to keep their messages coherent to the public.
Escobar secures for us some realities that lay hidden behind the piles of lies used by Empire directors to sell their terrorist wars to gullible Americans. The scriptwriters for the Empire's media must be suffering headaches from trying to keep their messages coherent to the public.
...the ‘Empire of Chaos’ keeps alive the ambivalent cover story of a Global Coalition fighting ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, with the hidden agenda of weakening Assad on the backburner.
In Syria, its Iranian military advisers who are coordinating the Syrian Arab Army with experienced Hezbollah fighters and Shi’ite militias from Iraq.
As there is no “moderate Syrian opposition” anymore – everyone migrated to the fake Caliphate - the ‘Empire of Chaos’s’ not so hidden agenda under the “authorization to use military force” would be to keep a bunch of CIA-screened weaponized “rebels” just to maintain pressure over Damascus. By now it’s plain obvious that it’s not the ‘Empire of Chaos’ but the alliance of the Syrian Arab Army, Hezbollah fighters and Iran-supervised Shi’ite militias that will prevail over the fake Caliphate.
Libya, ISIS and the unaffordable luxury of hindsight
Click here to access article by Ahmad Barqawi from Asia Times Online.
"Who are you?" the late Muammar Gaddafi once rhetorically asked in a famous speech of his towards the end of his reign; (rightly) questioning the legitimacy of those seeking to overthrow his government at the time, calling them extremists, foreign agents, rats and drug-addicts.What he may not have known is that they (euphemistically identified as "rebels" by Western corporate media) were another Empire sponsored terrorist army organized to overthrow his government. This was a tried and true US strategy first successfully employed in Nicaragua using the "Contras" and then in Afghanistan using the Mujaheddin, which were the antecedent of al Qaeda and now ISIS, to overthrow the pro-Soviet government of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
He was laughed at, unfairly caricatured, ridiculed and incessantly demonized; a distasteful parody video poking fun at the late Libyan leader even went viral on social media; evidently the maker of the video, an Israeli, thought the Libyan colloquial Arabic word Zenga (which means an alleyway) sounded funny enough that he extracted it from one of Gaddafi’s speeches, looped it on top of a hip-hop backing track and voila …, he got himself a hit video that was widely (and shamefully) circulated with a "revolutionary" zeal in the Arab world. We shared, we laughed, he died.
But the bloody joke is on all of us; Gaddafi knew what he was talking about.
Obama absurdly declares Venezuela a security threat
Click here to access article by Mark Weisbrot from Al Jazeera.
Obama isn't channeling anybody. To suggest this is hiding the important reality of how the US Empire functions. Empire media already do far too much of that, that is, hiding or reinterpreting reality to make Empire actions acceptable to the American public. Obama is merely following orders from the same shadow Empire directors that Reagan and Bush Jr. did. By declaring Venezuela a security threat, the shadow government is adding another weapon (in addition to the oil price war engaged in by their Saudi partners) with which to economically attack Venezuela in order to cripple their economy in preparation for another coup attempt.
Yesterday the White House took a new step toward the theater of the absurd by “declaring a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela,” as President Barack Obama put it in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner.Funny how I didn't see this in corporate news broadcasts--maybe because it wasn't there. I guess because the corporate media managers couldn't come up with a reasonable sounding spin on it to convince even a mostly gullible public.
It remains to be seen whether anyone in the White House press corps will have the courage to ask what in the world the nation’s chief executive could mean by that. Is Venezuela financing a coming terrorist attack on U.S. territory? Planning an invasion? Building a nuclear weapon?
Who do they think they are kidding? Some may say that the language is just there because it is necessary under U.S. law in order to impose the latest round of sanctions on Venezuela.
Obama isn't channeling anybody. To suggest this is hiding the important reality of how the US Empire functions. Empire media already do far too much of that, that is, hiding or reinterpreting reality to make Empire actions acceptable to the American public. Obama is merely following orders from the same shadow Empire directors that Reagan and Bush Jr. did. By declaring Venezuela a security threat, the shadow government is adding another weapon (in addition to the oil price war engaged in by their Saudi partners) with which to economically attack Venezuela in order to cripple their economy in preparation for another coup attempt.
Quantitative Easing for Whom? (Parts 1 and 2)
Click here to access article the source posting at Real News for part 1 with transcript of remarks by Michael Hudson.
Click here to access article the source posting at Real News for part 2 with transcript of remarks by Michael Hudson.
Click here to access article the source posting at Real News for part 2 with transcript of remarks by Michael Hudson.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
The art of becoming human
Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder.
About 180,000 people enlist in the United States military each year, many of whom will come home with physical injuries or psychological damage. Recruits are trained to kill, taught to de-humanize others, to participate in torture, but are expected to forget upon returning to civilian life.What a powerful article Dolack has produced! He uses an art show in Brooklyn to expand on the plight of returning veterans. Because corporate media rarely cover such issues unless they can put a positive spin on their coverage, we must depend on alternative media to become aware of the terrific difficulties they face when they try to re-adjust to normal life after enduring such de-humanizing experiences.
That 22 veterans commit suicide per day is a grim reminder not only of the harsh demands of military life but that the Pentagon effectively throws away its veterans after using them.
Forget Hillary’s Emails, Here’s Her Real Scandal That Nobody is Talking About
Click here to access article by Nick Bernabe from The Anti-Media.
I think Bernabe goes much too far with this argument:
Hillary Clinton merely signed onto this already well-formed faction within the power structure for opportunistic reasons. This move to make a big issue of her use of a personal email account to conduct government business is very likely based purely on inter-party superficial politics that we often see in the run-up to elections. Corporate media also love to deflect the public's attention away from real political issues onto superficial "scandals" like this.
Hillary is by no means an important player in the Empire's directory most of whom function behind the scenes. Empire directors love to play on the populist and liberal fantasies of Americans. They did this when Rockefeller/Brzezinski backed Jimmy Carter who was presented to Americans as a Baptist peanut farmer from Georgia. And, of course, they've done this with Obama who was used as "racial" candidate to show how racially tolerant we Americans are even though he was mostly raised by his white banker grandmother and educated and indoctrinated in elite private schools. Appearances are all that matter to corporate media managers. They're primary role is to get Americans to buy toothpaste, cars, and candidates. For several years they have been marketing Hillary by presenting her to us as a "feminist" candidate in order to satisfy a desire among most Americans who want real equality of opportunity regardless of gender, race, or class.
I think Bernabe goes much too far with this argument:
Here’s the plain truth: Hillary Clinton is largely responsible for the complete destruction of an entire nation. 50,000 or more people have died thanks to what’s been dubbed “Hillary’s War” in Libya.I hope that this was not done deliberately to deflect attention away from a dramatic event in the US power structure. I am referring to a policy coup within the directorship of the US Empire: the Zionist-conservative (also known as "neocons") coup. This coalition of Israeli collaborators and weapons manufacturers first infiltrated the power structure by cultivating a relationship in the latter 1970s early 1980s with former Sen. Henry (Scoop) Jackson from Washington state. (See this posting which contains some very valuable links.) Since then we have seen the operation of Gladio 2: a series of phony wars on terror and the secret use of terrorist armies to advance Empire and Israeli interests.
Hillary Clinton merely signed onto this already well-formed faction within the power structure for opportunistic reasons. This move to make a big issue of her use of a personal email account to conduct government business is very likely based purely on inter-party superficial politics that we often see in the run-up to elections. Corporate media also love to deflect the public's attention away from real political issues onto superficial "scandals" like this.
Hillary is by no means an important player in the Empire's directory most of whom function behind the scenes. Empire directors love to play on the populist and liberal fantasies of Americans. They did this when Rockefeller/Brzezinski backed Jimmy Carter who was presented to Americans as a Baptist peanut farmer from Georgia. And, of course, they've done this with Obama who was used as "racial" candidate to show how racially tolerant we Americans are even though he was mostly raised by his white banker grandmother and educated and indoctrinated in elite private schools. Appearances are all that matter to corporate media managers. They're primary role is to get Americans to buy toothpaste, cars, and candidates. For several years they have been marketing Hillary by presenting her to us as a "feminist" candidate in order to satisfy a desire among most Americans who want real equality of opportunity regardless of gender, race, or class.
Another "Let's Ally With Nusra" Campaign
Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.
The new campaign started with a claim in a Reuters piece, based solely on a the words of one unreliable Syrian "rebel" and anonymous Qatari sources, that Jabhat [al-Nusra] might loosen ties with al-Qaeda central in exchange for Qatari money and "western" help. Latter an official Jabhat al-Nusra paper only somewhat denied that. Then two pieces by "western" experts were launched which both try to sell al-Qaeda in Syria as the "good" side that deserves "our" support. These are not, like earlier, slightly hidden propaganda suggestions but straight out arguments to ally with al-Qaeda.
At the BBC site one Dr. Roberts is arguing for better relations with Jabhat al Nusra.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Putin signs law ratifying BRICS Bank
Click here to access article from The BRICS Post.
"This could be the start of something big", which was a popular song in my youth could well be an understatement regarding this development among the BRICS nations to free themselves from the Empire's IMF, World Bank, and the US dollar. While it will be good for these countries, we must all "pray" that the action will not tip our mad Empire directors over the edge to even think about launching a nuclear attack. Given that the two financial institutions and the US dollar are critical components of Empire hegemony, and world hegemony has been the obsession of our masters since the end of WWII, this action could trigger such thoughts.
The BRICS Bank launched last year will fund infrastructure projects in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and challenge the dominance of the Western-led World Bank and the IMF.
The Agreement will enter into force and the Bank will begin operations only after all member countries deposit their instruments of ratification with Brazil.
The BRICS Bank launched last year will fund infrastructure projects in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and challenge the dominance of the Western-led World Bank and the IMF.
The Agreement will enter into force and the Bank will begin operations only after all member countries deposit their instruments of ratification with Brazil.
Dollar Imperialism, 2015 Edition
Click here to access article by Michele Brand and Remy Herrera.
If you didn't find the above article sufficiently challenging, maybe this one will. Both are excellent attempts to explain the ill effects of the US dollar on the rest of the world. The authors conclude this rather lengthy essay with the following commentary:
If you didn't find the above article sufficiently challenging, maybe this one will. Both are excellent attempts to explain the ill effects of the US dollar on the rest of the world. The authors conclude this rather lengthy essay with the following commentary:
With $5.7 trillion of dollar denominated debt, the BRICS still have a ways to go before liberating themselves fully from the dollar. If they enter into a full-fledged economic crisis (and Russia is already there), they could be forced to act more quickly toward creating a de-dollarized alternative financial sphere, in order to survive. This bipolar world, which seems likely, could at least offer some respite to those economies; however, if the world split into two rival spheres, it could lead to a new cold war – and possibly the risk of a new world war. A much preferable solution would certainly be the creation of a new global reserve currency – which would not replace national currencies but only take over the dollar’s unfair hegemonic role – managed by an international institution, whether a reformed IMF (if that’s possible) or another one which would be more “neutral” than such institutions are currently.
Liberating the world from the burden of the dollar, and from the hot and cold wars waged in its interest, will of course not relieve us from the world’s true, insidious disease: capitalism. But it would allow some breathing room necessary for alternative experiences working toward the socialization of the economy, toward socialism, to survive and hopefully thrive.
‘F—k the EU,’ Revisited
Click here to access article by Justin Raimondo from AntiWar.
Raimondo finds evidence in major German media to indicate that Europeans are starting to resent the Empire's aggressive actions in Europe to stir up more conflict.
Raimondo finds evidence in major German media to indicate that Europeans are starting to resent the Empire's aggressive actions in Europe to stir up more conflict.
The Germans...are waking up to the reality of Washington’s domination – because they, after all, will be in the free-fire zone if and when an actual shooting war erupts between Russia and the US. That they will be happy to be America’s pawns in such a deadly game is rather doubtful. If the Strobe Talbotts of this world insist on a new cold war, then we will see a revival of Euro-neutralism – and that’s a good thing. Perhaps the time for a true European declaration of independence is not far – a circumstance in which case Nuland’s "F—k the EU" will take on new meaning.
Kerry Re-writes History of U.S. Support for Color Revolutions
Click here to access article by Wayne Madsen from Strategic Culture Foundation.
Madsen catches Kerry in making a huge lie recently in Geneva. Of course, lying is completely normal for our Empire builders, but this is a lie that ranks at the top of the list of the most horrendous. It attempts to hide the grossest war crimes perpetrated by our masters. Color revolutions have resulted in the destruction of entire nations: they become either totally dysfunctional like Libya or torn apart like the former Yugoslavia. In the reported examples he cites, we have seen evidence of terrorist paramilitaries (including snipers) funded and armed by either NGOs or the CIA, civil wars resulting in millions of refugees, destruction of cities, and many millions of deaths. If these are not war crimes, then I don't know what constitutes a war crime.
Madsen catches Kerry in making a huge lie recently in Geneva. Of course, lying is completely normal for our Empire builders, but this is a lie that ranks at the top of the list of the most horrendous. It attempts to hide the grossest war crimes perpetrated by our masters. Color revolutions have resulted in the destruction of entire nations: they become either totally dysfunctional like Libya or torn apart like the former Yugoslavia. In the reported examples he cites, we have seen evidence of terrorist paramilitaries (including snipers) funded and armed by either NGOs or the CIA, civil wars resulting in millions of refugees, destruction of cities, and many millions of deaths. If these are not war crimes, then I don't know what constitutes a war crime.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry either has a blind spot when it comes to the last 15 years of U.S. foreign policy or he told a big whopping lie in Geneva. Kerry, in defining U.S. action in Ukraine, said that "We [the United States] are not involved in multiple color revolutions".
Monday, March 9, 2015
The Relationship between Washington and ISIS: The Evidence
Click here to access article by Tim Anderson from Global Research.
It would have been better to have individual references linked in the main body where needed. He provides them at the end of the article. I can add one more.
While there have been claims that the ISIS ‘caliph’ al-Baghdadi is a CIA or Mossad trained agent, these have not yet been well backed up. There are certainly grounds for suspicion, but independent evidence is important, in the context of a supposed US ‘war’ against ISIS . So what is the broader evidence on Washington’s covert links with ISIS?Then he cites evidence that strongly suggest that ISIS is a creation of the US Empire, Saudi Arabia and GCC allies, and Israel. So, I'm not sure what the professor wants to come to the appropriate conclusion. Scientific proof?
It would have been better to have individual references linked in the main body where needed. He provides them at the end of the article. I can add one more.
Sustainability for Whom?
Click here to access article by Bill Sheehan from Upstream.
After reading a new book entitled Eco-Business: A Big-Brand Takeover of Sustainability Sheehan begins to doubt the mission of his own environmental organization. From the "About" page we learn that their mission is:
After reading a new book entitled Eco-Business: A Big-Brand Takeover of Sustainability Sheehan begins to doubt the mission of his own environmental organization. From the "About" page we learn that their mission is:
Founded in 2003, UPSTREAM (formerly Product Policy Institute) conducts original research, develops model policies and educational materials, and organizes key stakeholders to build a green and just economy. Our dedicated staff work with public interest groups, government officials, leading companies and everyday people to advocate for product stewardship initiatives, where consumer goods companies are responsible for reducing or eliminating the environmental impacts of their products.What is left unclarified in this mission statement is that they are an advocacy environmental organization that wants to promote capitalist "eco-business". Of course this means within a system that is based on privately owned businesses in which their primary function is to extract profits. After reading the results of such eco-business practices in this book, Sheehan is becoming aware that such practices pose contradictions for their mission. Yet, at this point in time he doesn't seem to be aware that the primary contradiction is to promote such practices within a capitalist system.
The Great SIM Heist: How Spies Stole the Keys to the Encryption Castle
Click here to access article by Jeremy Scahill and Josh Begley from The Intercept.
American and British spies hacked into the internal computer network of the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, stealing encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications across the globe, according to top-secret documents provided to The Intercept by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The hack was perpetrated by a joint unit consisting of operatives from the NSA and its British counterpart Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ.
Sunday, March 8, 2015
War and the Dollar
Click here to access article by Valentin Katasonov from Strategic Culture Foundation.
The author informs a geopolitical analysis from a debt and currency perspective. I've long argued that the US dollar is backed increasingly by sheer violence or the threat of violence against countries whose monetary policies threaten the dominance of the US dollar in world trade. He argues along the same lines, and adds the US debt amounting to many trillions of dollars into the equation. To dig themselves out of this hole, Katasonov sees major wars ahead perpetrated by the US and its allies. This may explain the present bellicose turn of US foreign policies.
The author informs a geopolitical analysis from a debt and currency perspective. I've long argued that the US dollar is backed increasingly by sheer violence or the threat of violence against countries whose monetary policies threaten the dominance of the US dollar in world trade. He argues along the same lines, and adds the US debt amounting to many trillions of dollars into the equation. To dig themselves out of this hole, Katasonov sees major wars ahead perpetrated by the US and its allies. This may explain the present bellicose turn of US foreign policies.
...the biggest shareholders of the Federal Reserve System must be confounded by the growing discrepancy between America’s GDP and the position of its dollar. The dollar is becoming increasingly unstable. If they wished, a few powerful countries could coordinate their efforts, pool their resources, begin to unload their dollar reserves, and cause the dollar’s collapse. However, the power of the masters of the Federal Reserve lies in the fact that they have always known how to act proactively. And now there are many signs that they are taking practical steps to protect the dollar, primarily in order to prepare for a major war. The «money masters» (the owners of the Fed’s banknote printing press) have several reasons to unleash such a war.
A Europe-U.S. Divorce Over Ukraine
Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.
The U.S., the empire of chaos, does not care what happens after a regime change. In the view of U.S. politicians trouble and unrest in the "rest of the world" can only better the (relative) position of the United States. If production capabilities in Europe get destroyed through war the U.S. could revive its export industries.Unfortunately, this blogger always attributes far too much agency to Obama. Obama is merely a black face that takes orders from his handlers, people hired by the ruling class to insure that he follows their script. The capitalist directors of the ruling class hired him to create the appearance of a non-racist society. Most presidents have served this public relations function since the assassination of John Kennedy who refused to take orders from the "shadow government".
It seems that at least some European leaders now understand that they got played by Washington and they are pushing back. A Eurasian economic sphere is in Europe's interest.
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