Article: US Empire Reaches Breaking Point - Time To End It | OpEdNews

The people of the United States must work to end the interventionist violence of the U.S. Empire.

This is Part I of a two part series on American Empire. Part II will focus on the Empire Economy and his it is failing to work for most Americans as well as most people of the world.

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

The historian who chronicles US Empire, William Blum, issued his 130th Anti-Empire Report this week. In it he notes that the US, by far, is seen by the people of the world as "the greatest threat to peace in the world today" with 24% taking that view. Only 2% see Russia as such a threat, and 6% see China.

This should not come as a surprise since, as this map shows, much of the world has been bombed, had their democratically chosen government overthrown and has been occupied by the United States. Blum follows these interventions closely and has reported that since the end of World War II, the United States has:

* Attempted to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments, most of which were democratically-elected.
* Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries.
* Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders.
* Attempted to suppress a populist or nationalist movement in 20 countries.
* Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries, according to Chapter 18 of his book Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower.

It seems the people of the world are factually correct when they label the United States the greatest threat to peace in the world.

Yet, despite this mass public opinion about the United States, US leaders seem oblivious. As Blum points out, Secretary of State John Kerry said: "In my travels as secretary of state, I have seen as never before the thirst for American leadership in the world."

And, potential future leaders show support for the path of military intervention. The Republican Vice Presidential candidate in 2012, Paul Ryan (R-WI) said: "We need to be reminded that the world needs American leadership." And the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton has said "The United States can, must, and will lead in this new century."

A more accurate appraisal comes from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Vietnam era when he said: "The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I cannot be Silent." The people of the United States must follow the lead of Dr. King and work to end the interventionist violence of the United States Empire.

Reviewing the Hottest Spots in US Empire

The US is involved in military disputes around the globe, conflicts each could lead to a much broader war. The US role seems to encourage violence, rather than minimize it; to intervene, rather than allow people in the country or region resolve disputes. The breadth of Empire is costly in financial and human terms as well as to the respect of the United States and its people. Is the US Empire spread so thin at a time of a struggling economy that this is a moment where people can come together and build a movement to end Empire?

There are multiple hot spots where US Empire is participating, supporting and approving of escalating violence. Here's a quick review:

Complete story at - Article: US Empire Reaches Breaking Point - Time To End It | OpEdNews

Ukraine: Some call us rebels, some terrorists , some separatists - are we?

Right now, the world media is focused on the awful crash of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 in Ukraine that caused the death of 298 innocent people on board flight MH17 last week.

I am a freelance reporter for eTN and also an attorney in Ukraine. I would like to introduce readers to ordinary citizens, many of them are actually called rebels, terrorists or separatists. They actually are just regular people like you and me who lived a peaceful live in my beautiful home region of the Ukraine. They are my friends, they are my colleagues, they are family people, people who love to party and have fun, go to the movies, enjoy food and company.

Some don't really care about politics. They don't mind living in a country ruled by Ukraine, or ruled by Russia. BUT they are scared. They are scared because the government they never had a fair chance to vote for in far away Kiev has a lot interest in the wealth of our region, but has absolutely no interest in us, the people.

This right wing government has the support of the entire Western world. We love the west. We would be honored to be part of the European Union- we also love Russia.

Many of my friends speak about concentration camps for us after our own government in Kiev started bombing our neighborhoods, our schools and killed our families like cockroaches.

Ironically most of us still have good friends in all parts of our Ukraine - just the government is trying to tell us who we should like or hate.

I am from Luhansk in the Russian part of Eastern Ukraine. Actually now some call it Luhansk People’s Republic.

The situation in Eastern Ukraine, especially in Luhansk, is not easy. On Friday, July 18, in my home town, there were broken windows, destroyed homes, shell fragments, blood, and body parts on the pavement. About 64 civilians have been killed and more than 215 injured. Forty-six big apartment buildings have been destroyed, plus 195 homes. In addition, 3 schools, 12 kindergartens, the Central bus station, 5 factories, and 18 shops are all closed. In total, 60% of all stores and food markets are closed.

I would like to relate to eTN readers how some of my friends, regular residents of Luhansk, feel and how they describe life in a city under siege.

NoBC4U Note: The following people tell their stories at the link below. Link contains some graphic images...

Olga, 56 years old

Anna, 32 years old

Yevgeniy, 36 years old

Sergey, 29 years old, separatist

Yulia, 21 years old, separatist

Andrey, 42 years old, separatist

Igor, 36 years old, separatist

Complete story at - Ukraine: Some call us rebels, some terrorists , some separatists - are we?

Holier than Thou: Why Should Anyone Believe the US, Ukraine, or Russia? What is the US Attempting to Hide?

I am quite tired of rhetoric from the Obama administration and Kiev regarding the situation in Ukraine. Hardly any of it is believable.

Indeed, some Ukraine propaganda efforts of Kiev are so amateurish they appear as sloppy acts of desperate coverups.

If so, then it is far more likely Ukraine is the guilty party, not the separatists. If you are innocent, you do not choose such tactics.

What is the US and Kiev Attempting to Hide?

Earlier today, Obama Issued a Stern Warning to Russia coupled with a statement "What exactly are they trying to hide?"

That's a good question. But let me turn the tables by asking: "What exactly is the US and Kiev attempting to hide?"

Challenge From Russia

Please consider Russia Challenges Accusations that Ukraine Rebels Shot Down Airliner.

Russia's Defence Ministry on Monday challenged accusations pro-Russian rebels were to blame for shooting down a Malaysian airliner and asked the United States to produce satellite images to support its assertions.

At a briefing in which generals used flashing radar images on big screens in a state-of-the-art conference room, the ministry said a Ukrainian fighter jet had tracked the airliner despite Kiev's assertions that no aircraft were nearby.

The hi-tech presentation appeared a direct response to video and audio recordings used by Ukrainian security officials to back up their accusations of Russian and rebel involvement - recordings the ministry's comments suggested were fabricated.

"Russian air space control systems detected a Ukrainian Air Force plane, presumably an SU-25 (fighter jet), scrambling in the direction of the Malaysian Boeing ... The distance of the SU-25 plane from the Boeing was from 3 to 5 kilometres (2 to 3 miles)," Air Force Lieutenant-General Igor Makushev said.

"Earlier, Ukrainian officials said that on the day of the Boeing 777 crash there were no military aircraft in the region - as you can see this does not appear to be true."

Another officer, Lieutenant-General Andrei Kartopolov, said that, "whether it is a coincidence or not", a U.S. satellite had been monitoring the area at the time.

"We also have some questions for our U.S. partners," he said. "According to the U.S. declarations, they have satellite images that confirm the missile was launched by the rebels. But nobody has seen these images." "If the American side has pictures from this satellite, then they should show the international community."

Complete story at - Holier than Thou: Why Should Anyone Believe the US, Ukraine, or Russia? What is the US Attempting to Hide?

Asia Times Online :: The charge of the Atlanticist Brigade

By Peter Lee

The bloody farce in the Ukraine took another ugly turn with the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

And to be ugly about it, if the rebels shot the plane down, it shouldn't matter very much except as a horrible and unexpected catastrophe in a war zone and an overwhelming tragedy to the survivors of the victims on board. Call it an accident, collateral damage, manslaughter, there is no credible version of events in which it was intentional mass murder or terrorism, either by the rebels or Russian technicians that, according to the Ukrainian government, possessed the ability to operate the elderly but complex anti-aircraft systems fingered in the attack.

Recall the US shootdown of Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988 by the USS Vincennes. It was also an ugly business. The Iran Air jet was on a standard civilian flight path with its transponders on; the Vincennes through some bit of naval derring-do had actually intruded into Iranian territorial waters when it shot the plane down (something that was only admitted by the US three years later); 290 people died. The US never apologized, but eventually paid out some money to smooth things over, not in a particularly classy way, according to a 2002 account:

The US had compensated non-Iranian victims about US$2.9 million (not acknowledging any responsibility) but nothing to Iranian family members. In 1996, a $131.8 million settlement was reached that included the ignored families ($61.8 million). Seventy million was to be put into bank accounts and used to "pay off private US claims against Iran and Iran's expenses for the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, which is handling the claims." The US stated it was for claims "involving banking matters, not the airliner," while Iran said that 30 million was for the plane.

The shootdown was accompanied by the usual quotient of dishonest denial and blame shifting.

The following day, the Pentagon held a news conference on the incident. After originally having flatly denied Iran's version of the event, saying that it had shot down an F-14 fighter and not a civilian aircraft, the State Department (after a review of the evidence) admitted the downing of Iran Air 655. It was claimed that the plane had "strayed too close to two US Navy warships that were engaged in a battle with Iranian gunboats" and, according to the spokesman, that the "proper defensive action" was taken (in part) because the "suspect aircraft was outside the prescribed commercial air corridor". (Washington Post)

That it "strayed" from its normal, scheduled flight path is factually incorrect. And so was the claim that it was heading right for the ship and "descending" (emphasis, mine) toward it - it was ascending. Another "error" was the contention that it took place in international waters (it did not, a fact only later admitted by the government). Incorrect maps were used when Congress was briefed on the incident.

In an interesting sidebar, the "planeful of naked corpses" conspiracy canard (for which Western journos have repeatedly mocked a Ukrainian rebel militia leader who was, presumably, dumbfounded by the grotesque carnage of the crash) was first deployed by right wing US radio commentators to accuse Iran of staging a provocation by flying a plane of naked corpses at the Vincennes.

The Iran Air shootdown was classified as a goof - although the Iranians declared it rose to the level of criminal misconduct (and have been accused of engineering the Lockerbie bombing as retaliation) - and the captain of the Vincennes was condemned by his fellow officers as a reckless dingbat, per Wikipedia:

Commander David Carlson, commanding officer of the USS Sides, the warship stationed near to the Vincennes at the time of the incident, is reported to have said that the destruction of the aircraft "marked the horrifying climax to Captain Rogers' aggressiveness, first seen four weeks ago."[39] His comment referred to incidents on 2 June, when Rogers had sailed the Vincennes too close to an Iranian frigate undertaking a lawful search of a bulk carrier, launched a helicopter within 2-3 miles (3.2-4.8 kilometers) of an Iranian small craft despite rules of engagement requiring a four-mile (6.4 km) separation, and opened fire on small Iranian military boats.

Of those incidents, Carlson commented, "Why do you want an Aegis cruiser out there shooting up boats? It wasn't a smart thing to do." He also said that Iranian forces he had encountered in the area a month prior to the incident were "... pointedly non-threatening" and professional. At the time of Rogers' announcement to higher command that he was going to shoot down the plane, Carlson is reported to have been thunderstruck: "I said to folks around me, 'Why, what the hell is he doing?' I went through the drill again. F-14. He's climbing. By now this damn thing is at 7,000 feet." Carlson thought the Vincennes might have more information, and was unaware that Rogers had been wrongly informed that the plane was diving.

Craig, Morales & Oliver, in a slide presentation published in M.I.T.'s Spring 2004 Aeronautics & Astronautics as the "USS Vincennes Incident", commented that Captain Rogers had "an undeniable and unequivocal tendency towards what I call 'picking a fight.'" On his own initiative, Rogers moved the Vincennes 50 miles (80 km) northeast to join the USS Montgomery. An angry Captain Richard McKenna, Chief of Surface Warfare for the Commander of the Joint Task Force, ordered Rogers back to Abu Musa, but the Vincennes helicopter pilot, Lt Mark Collier, followed the Iranian speedboats as they retreated north, eventually taking some fire:

... the Vincennes jumps back into the fray. Heading towards the majority of the speedboats, he is unable to get a clear target. Also, the speedboats are now just slowly milling about in their own territorial waters. Despite clear information to the contrary, Rogers informs command that the gunboats are gathering speed and showing hostile intent and gains approval to fire upon them at 0939. Finally, in another fateful decision, he crosses the 12-nautical-mile (22 km) limit off the coast and enters illegally into Iranian waters.[42]

Captain Rogers was not officially censured for the shootdown; instead, two years later he was awarded the Legion of Merit for his services while captain of the Vincennes and soon after retired.


Complete story at - Asia Times Online :: The charge of the Atlanticist Brigade

The Argentina Debt Case | naked capitalism

By Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics and Chairperson at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Originally published in Frontline (India)

Almost everyone now knows that the world of international finance is not a particularly robust one, nor is it particularly just or fair. But it has just got even weirder and more fragile, if this can be imagined. A recent ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court, refusing to hear an appeal by the government of Argentine against a decision of a lower court on a case relating to its debt restructuring agreement with creditors over a decade ago, is not just a blow against the state and people of Argentina. It has the potential to undermine the entire system of cross-border debt that underlies global capitalism today.

The case has its origins in the 1990s, when the government of Carlos Menem fixed the Argentine peso at the value of one U.S. dollar, through a currency board arrangement that restricted base money supply to the amount of external reserves and sought to increase its spending through the build-up of external debt. This was obviously an unsustainable strategy, which exploded in a financial crisis in 2001, bringing on a major devaluation of the currency and a default on around $100 billion of external debt.

In 2005, the government of Nestor Kirchner, which had then managed to revive the economy to some extent, offered its creditors debt swaps that significantly restructured the debts. Since Argentine bonds were anyway trading at a fraction of their face value in the secondary market, this deal, which reduced the value of the debt by nearly 75 per cent, was acceptable to most of the multinational banks and other creditors. (Since unpaid interest is added on to the principal and compounded, the actual face value of the debt in such cases is typically much more than the amount originally borrowed or lent out.) Indeed, creditors holding 93 per cent of government bonds participated in the debt swaps of 2005 and 2010.

However, a tiny minority of creditors held out and refused to accept the negotiated settlement. These then sold their holdings to hedge funds (in this case known as “vulture funds” that take on distressed assets in the hope of recouping a higher value from them). One of the most prominent of these funds in the Argentine case is NML Capital, a subsidiary of Elliot Capital Management, which is run by U.S. billionaire and major Republican party donor Paul Singer. This fund has a history of using aggressive tactics to force struggling sovereign debtors to pay the full value of debts that have already been deeply discounted by the market. In the past, it has successfully sued the governments of Peru and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ever since it bought Argentine bonds at around 20 per cent of the face value in 2008, it has been pursuing the case both legally and physically. In 2012, it hired mercenaries to detain and try to seize an Argentine ship where it was docked off the coast of Ghana; at another time it even attempted to grab the Argentina Presidential plane from an airport—as “collateral” for its supposed holding of debt. Legally, NML Capital and another vulture fund, Aurelius Capital Management LP, have been pursuing a case in a New York district court, demanding full payment on their debt, of the value of around $1.5 billion. It has been estimated by the Argentine government that this could amount to a return of more than 1600 per cent on the initial investment made by these vulture funds.

In 2012, U.S. District Judge in New York Thomas Griesa ruled in favour of the hedge funds, which was both extraordinary in law and devastating in its potential implications not just for Argentina but for finance in general. The Argentine government appealed against it, but this appeal has now been dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Consider just some elements of this U.S. court decision. First, it is based on a peculiar and unprecedented interpretation of the pari passu (equal treatment) clause, which holds that all bond holders must be treated alike. The courts have interpreted this to mean that a sovereign debtor must make full payment on a defaulted claim if it makes any payments on restructured bonds. So if the bondholders who agreed to restructure 93 per cent of the Argentine debt are being paid according to their agreement, then the other resisting bond holders must also be paid the full value of their debts!

Complete story at - The Argentina Debt Case | naked capitalism

Onslaught Of Western Powers MH17 Propaganda Reaches ‘Shock & Awe’ Proportions | The Millennium Report

Russia and the 2014 MH17 Airliner Disaster

Russia for months has continuously confounded NATO’s attempts to overthrow and reorder the nation of Ukraine along its western border. While NATO managed to violently remove the elected government of Viktor Yanukovych, the proxies it chose to replace it with were immediately as incompetent as they were unpopular. In quick succession, Crimea peeled away from Kiev and became a federal district of Russia, while the provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk declared independence and sought closer ties with neighboring Russia.

Disorganized, underfunded, and ill-equipped, the Ukrainian army fought a brutal punitive campaign in eastern Ukraine that as of July began unraveling in spectacular disarray. Entire units were wiped out, others encircled, and others still on the brink of mutiny. Attempts to undermine Russia throughout Kiev’s rampage east failed as well. A second round of sanctions leveled at Russia by the United States and Europe were recognized globally as ineffective and impotent. NATO’s last card appeared to be out on the table, and it was a ‘joker.’

With Russia and the separatists in eastern Ukraine standing at the threshold of inevitable victory and standing high in global public opinion, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed near the Ukrainian-Russian border in territory controlled by eastern Ukrainian separatists. Again, answering the question of “cui bono?” is simple. NATO – and the West made no secret of this.

Complete story at - Onslaught Of Western Powers MH17 Propaganda Reaches ‘Shock & Awe’ Proportions | The Millennium Report

ZCommunications » A new American political order?

Recently, pollsters found out, via ‘We Need Smith,’ which is a self-declared “movement of Americans who believe we need new leaders because our country is badly headed in the wrong direction” and not relying on the “usual politics,” what they called the “battlelines of a new political order.” I’m not sure how I feel about this whole ‘We Need Smith’ movement, and as a result I will continue to be critical. This article will not only debut my new chart, the ‘People Policy Counter,’ but it will include charts and data on overarching views of the American public presented by the said pollsters, and other polls. And if you have any suggestions, please share them below.

The People Policy Counter

Basically, the People Policy Counter is a list of 100 issues that a majority of the American people believe[1], which is then compared to the positions of politicians (hopefully) and political parties. From my tabulations, I found that (numbers ordered by amount of agreement with the American people):

• The Green Party agrees with the American people 79% of the time
• The Justice Party agrees with the American people 61% of the time
• President Obama agrees with the American people 28% of the time
• The Democratic Party agrees with the American people 25% of the time
• The Libertarian Party agrees with the American people 24% of the time
• The Constitution Party agrees with the American people 21% of the time
• The Republican Party agrees with the American people 6% of the time

These results are not trying to advocate for any of the said parties, or President Obama. I tried to take my bias toward certain issues out of the equation, and I mostly just searched on the Gallup website, snatching up poll results as I went. Rather, taken from a number of polls (probably over 50)[2], it is meant to show how in line these political parties are with the opinions of the American people. As it turns out, only the centre-left Justice Party and the Green Party agree with the American public most of the time, more often than most. There were also a number of issues that I did not know the opinions of the said parties, so I did not fill them out, meaning that the percentages came out of the total of 100 issues. Hopefully, I can expand this to other politicians in the future. Here are some interesting positions that NONE of the parties took (to my knowledge) but the American people believe:

• national referendum on key issues if voters request it
• shorten primary season to five months
• have a nationwide primary election, not individual state primaries
• term limits for politicians in US Senate and US House
• Super PACs should be illegal and there would be less corruption in the political system if there were limits on how much could be given to Super PACs
• attack social problems as a way to lower the crime rate

Before I get to the polls conducted by ‘We Need Smith,’ here are some polls which I didn’t use in my People’s Policy Counter but are still interesting, adding questions about a ‘new political order’ emerging in the United States:

Complete story at - ZCommunications » A new American political order?

Who Profits from Ukraine's War: An Investigative Report | The Smirking Chimp

by Eric Zuesse

To start with, an explanation is needed for this article’s sheer length:

The civil war now raging inside Ukraine is a turning-point in world history, regarding many different respects:

For one thing, this civil war was produced as the direct result of the 2014 coup in Ukraine that was carried out by the Obama Administration in much the same general way that the Eisenhower Administration had carried out the 1953 coup in Iran that installed the Shah there, but the impact of Obama's Ukrainian coup will be even bigger long-term than that earlier one produced (and we all live with that earlier one even today after the Shah's overthrow in 1979), because this one will either extend "the American Century" or else end it. (“The American Century” is the period of the U.S. dollar's serving as the global reserve currency. Americans living today tend to take that for granted, but so too did the Brits when the pound was king, until their Empire collapsed.) (And see this, for a shocker on the global-reserve-currency matter: the battle over this matter could actually split the Western Alliance itself.)

Secondly, the Ukrainian coup and the ethnic-cleansing campaign now going on by the coup-government that we have installed there to impose our coup on the country’s resistant local populations in the southeast, are even more clearly fascistic than was Eisenhower's coup and subsequent U.S. reign in Iran, and are even more brutal than our previous coups, such as those that brought down Arbenz in Guatemala, and Allende in Chile. None of those previous coups entailed quite so blatant and widespread an ethnic-cleansing campaign following it, as Obama's coup in Ukraine does. There was no blatantly Hitlerite movement in any of those countries, but there is in Ukraine, and it now dominates the government. Ukraine is different.

And, thirdly (and we won't go beyond three), Obama's coup's being right next door to the other major nuclear power, Russia -- which is its real target -- actually does pose the danger of a nuclear war between these two countries as a very possible outcome, which would destroy all of civilization. None of our earlier coups presented any threat of a nuclear war.

So, this report will be lengthy on account of the sheer historical magnitude of the stakes here.

An actual ethnic-cleansing -- a campaign of "either leave or else die" -- is occurring right now inside Ukraine as a direct and intended consequence of a decision that was made by, and that is continually being reinforced by, Barack Obama. From the standpoint of Obama, the ethnic cleansing is not being done with any specifically genocidal (or “racist”) intent; but, at the bottom levels (the level of the troops who are carrying it out) there indeed is a very strong ethnic hatred of the Russian-speaking population, and so it is overtly naziistic (or hate-driven fascism) at those lower levels. The focus of the present article is on the motivation of the deciders, the aristocratic psychopaths at the top of the operation, and not on the motivation of the far-more-numerous sheer bigots at the bottom. No one can understand an organized campaign like this if the focus is on motivation anywhere other than at the very top, since that’s what actually led the operation. Even if the riots here might look as if they were unplanned, they were highly organized, carried out with strict discipline at the very top -- as will here be demonstrated.

Complete story at - Who Profits from Ukraine's War: An Investigative Report | The Smirking Chimp

Massacre of the Innocents: Slaughter in the Gaza Ghetto | The Smirking Chimp

by Chris Floyd

The horror of Israel’s latest slaughter in Gaza speaks for itself — despite the mountainous flow of media sludge designed to obscure the reality of the aggression. Even the New York Times has been forced to print a few stories about the high number of civilian deaths being caused by the Israeli assault on the “Warsaw Ghetto” they have made of Gaza, noting the hospitals and mosques and private homes where dozens of innocent people have been blown to pieces by Israel’s weaponry (much of it American-made).

Israel has imprisoned the people of Gaza in a stateless limbo while carefully controlling almost every aspect of their lives, including what medicines they can have, what manufacturing and building materials they are allowed and even, at times, how much food they are allowed to eat to keep the population weakened but just above malnutrition levels.

This brutal regimen in daily life is of course punctuated with regular night raids, bombings, kidnappings, “disappearings” and almost weekly civilians deaths at the hands of Israeli overseers. This has gone on year after year. Yet Western media — and Western politicians — are presenting a picture of a nuclear-armed, American-backed ultra-militarist Israel “under siege” from a handful of ineffective rockets fired by factions in Gaza which are answering violence with violence.

But as we all know, the West demands that Palestinians show superhuman, Gandhi-like forbearance in the face of murderous oppression and relentless, widespread violence killing their children and families. They are never to respond in kind — unlike the Americans, who have killed hundreds of thousands of people in response to a single attack on their soil. This after killing, by Washington’s own admission, more than half a million children in Iraq with peacetime sanctions — against a nation which had never attacked the United States and posed no threat to it. The merest hint of a possible threat remotely occurring sometime in a barely imaginable future is justification enough for the Americans to lay waste to whole nations and kill thousands of people. (Of course, in many states in America this principle is now enshrined in law on an individual basis: you can shoot dead anyone you feel might be a “threat” to you — whether they are or not. The ‘stand your ground’ laws are a perfect example of a nation rotting from the head, as the murderous militarism and adherence to violence embodied by the bipartisan elite seep down through every strata of society.) This is the true — the only — meaning of “American exceptionalism”: the right to ruin, rape and murder in perfect moral purity.

Complete story at - Massacre of the Innocents: Slaughter in the Gaza Ghetto | The Smirking Chimp

America Fails the "Rule of Law" Test - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic

The U.S. Army field manual* defines "the rule of law" as follows: "The rule of law refers to a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced, and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires, as well, measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency."

Going by that definition, the U.S. government does not operate according to the rule of law. A panel of former executive-branch employees, many of whom served in the U.S. military or the CIA, made this point bluntly in a recent report on drones. "Despite the undoubted good faith of US decision-makers, it would be difficult to conclude that US targeted strikes are consistent with core rule of law norms," they declared. "From the perspective of many around the world, the U.S. appears to claim, in effect, the legal right to kill any person it determines is a member of al-Qaida or its associated forces, in any state on Earth, at any time, based on secret criteria and secret evidence, evaluated in a secret process by unknown and largely anonymous individuals—with no public disclosure of which organizations are considered 'associated forces,' no means for anyone outside that secret process to raise questions about the criteria or validity of the evidence, and no means for anyone outside that process to identify or remedy mistakes or abuses."

Just so.

Complete story at - America Fails the 'Rule of Law' Test - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic

i have always been especially interested in the way CIA uses cults, so here’s one | Niqnaq

In this video you can see members of the organization Spiritual center “Revival.” This is a typical pseudo-Christian sect. In Ukraine, it was established in 2002 in the city of Dnipropetrovsk. (Kolomoisky is governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and the city of Dnipropetrovsk is his personal ultra-Jewish fiefdom, so location there is no accident – RB) Until 2014, they held their meetings in the concert halls, and even corrupt Ukrainian media wrote that the leaders of this sect fleecing ordinary members. After the “victory of the revolution of dignity” in Ukraine, according to the world’s media; ie after the coming to power of the fascist regime, all became possible. This meeting of this sect was held right at the entrance to the City Hall of Kiev. This was done on Friday, Jul 18, a working day, during working hours. Leaders of the sect called to pray for the members of the Kiev junta, in particular for Vitali Klitschko and Petro Poroshenko. They asked Jesus Christ to give more strength to these fascists and make Ukraine strong. Their action was called “Prayer for Peace in Ukraine,” but shouts “Hallelujah” for those who give the orders for the killings of innocent people, don’t look like prayer for peace. Generally, it is a crowd reminiscent of Maidan, when people under the influence of emotional cries of speakers did everything they were told to do. Perhaps Members of this sect took part in last Maidan. Link to album of photos from this event in site of organization: http://vo.org.ua/gallery/71




Complete story at - i have always been especially interested in the way CIA uses cults, so here’s one | Niqnaq

Whistleblower to Former AP Reporter: U.S. Satellite Images Show Ukrainian Troops Shooting Down MH17 |

Award winning former Associated Press reporter Robert Parry has been told by an intelligence source that the United States is in possession of satellite imagery which shows that Ukrainian troops were responsible for the shoot down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17.

In the absence of any proper investigation, media rhetoric over the last few days has firmly pointed the finger of blame for the downing of the aircraft on Russian-backed Ukrainian rebels, but Parry’s source tells a different story.

What I’ve been told by one source, who has provided accurate information on similar matters in the past, is that U.S. intelligence agencies do have detailed satellite images of the likely missile battery that launched the fateful missile, but the battery appears to have been under the control of Ukrainian government troops dressed in what look like Ukrainian uniforms.

The source said CIA analysts were still not ruling out the possibility that the troops were actually eastern Ukrainian rebels in similar uniforms but the initial assessment was that the troops were Ukrainian soldiers. There also was the suggestion that the soldiers involved were undisciplined and possibly drunk, since the imagery showed what looked like beer bottles scattered around the site, the source said.

Although the establishment press has attempted to deride any questioning of the official narrative that Ukrainian rebels were responsible for the incident by invoking the tired “conspiracy theory” pejorative, Parry can hardly be dismissed as a crank given his key role in covering the Iran-Contra scandal for the Associated Press and Newsweek. Indeed, Parry’s investigative work on intelligence matters, for which he was awarded the George Polk Award, suggests that the information provided by his source is worthy of serious attention.

Complete story at - Whistleblower to Former AP Reporter: U.S. Satellite Images Show Ukrainian Troops Shooting Down MH17 |

Mother of a Soldier – Protest in Chernivtsi Oblast, Western Ukraine, on June 20, 2014 | No Limit to Our Anger (c) V. M. Molotov

Mother of a Soldier: I am standing here for my son. My son was conscripted on March 26th. I don’t know his whereabouts. I am asking him “Sonny, are you ok?” He says: “I am ok”. I ask: “Where are you?” His only reply is – “in Ukraine, Mom, on the border”. That’s all, nobody tells me anything.

Why, I ask, why did they take our children there? Who needs them there, who? There are different people – some will not say anything, others ask our boys: “Why did you come here? You are a Banderovets!” Why do we send our kids there, if they are mocked as “Banderovtsy”? Why? Why the grown up able-bodied men run to hide here, sending our kids instead?

Why? Why did they make “Maidan”? From this very Maidan everything started. This Maidan they made … And they were paid on Maidan. They were paid to be there. Everything was paid for.

00:55 But here, our kids don’t have even the most basic conditions. Not even drinking water. Can you imagine? Buying water there … How can this be happening? What kind of a country is it? Nobody is thinking of anything.

In Supreme Rada [Ukrainian parliament], they just sit around and every day they “debate certain questions”. Every day. What kind of questions? Empty air. While we are standing here – mothers, wives, children. Not knowing anything.

I don’t know anything. Son says that “everything is Ok,” but I don’t know. He left behind his child. The little boy is just 9 years old. He keeps asking “Mama, where is my daddy?”

Where is his daddy? How is it possible? How is it possible to heap so much abuse on these people? I am sick and tired. I am sick and tired of watching the lies [on TV]. They say “we are winning” but men come and take my son to the East.



Complete story at - Mother of a Soldier – Protest in Chernivtsi Oblast, Western Ukraine, on June 20, 2014 | No Limit to Our Anger (c) V. M. Molotov

Ethical Bias - Worlds Apart on RT

Please Manipulate Me | The Smirking Chimp

What do you call it when media try to manipulate your feelings without first asking for informed consent?

Tuesday.

Example: The average Facebook user sees only 20 percent of the 1,500 stories per day that could have shown up in their news feed. The posts you receive are determined by algorithms whose bottom line is Facebook's bottom line. The company is constantly adjusting all kinds of dials, quietly looking for the optimal mix to make us spend more of our time and money on Facebook. Of course the more we're on Facebook, the more information they have about us to fine-tune their formulas for picking ads to show us. That's their business model: We create and give Facebook, for free, the content they use and the data they mine to hold our attention, which Facebook in turn sells to advertisers.

Those are the terms of service that everyone, without reading, clicks "I Agree" to -- and not just for Facebook. We make comparable mindless contracts all the time with Gmail, Yahoo, Twitter, Amazon, Siri, Yelp, Pandora and tons of other apps, retailers and advertiser-supported news and entertainment. If you're online, if you use a smartphone, you're an experimental subject in proprietary research studies of how best to target, engage and monetize you. They're always testing content, design, headlines, graphics, prices, promotions, profiling tools, you name it, and you've opted in whether you realize it or not.

Many of these experiments hinge on our feelings, because much of what makes us come, stay, buy, like, share, comment and come back is emotional, not rational. So it should surprise no one that Facebook wants to know what makes its users happier. But when they acknowledged last month that they had tested -- on 700,000 people, for one week -- whether increasing the fraction of upbeat posts in their news feeds made them feel more upbeat (it did), a firestorm broke out.

Complete story at - Please Manipulate Me | The Smirking Chimp

The Vineyard of the Saker: Warning of Impending Terrorist Acts by the Kiev Junta

Warning of Impending Terrorist Acts by the Kiev Junta

Video: Address by the Resistance Forces - Avakov and Nalyvaichenko Preparing Terrorist Acts

(w/ENG subs by Arioch The YouTube Channel)



Translated from Russian by Gleb Bazov

#1 - Warning from Anton Guryanov

Comrades, Friends, Brother and Sisters,

I, Anton Guryanov, speaking on behalf of the Resistance Forces that I have the honour to represent, will now make an official address. The text of the address is in front of me, and, in order to make no mistakes, I will refer to it, from time to time.

According to our information, the Nazis of the Kiev Junta are planning to conduct a major terrorist act in the next several days. Or a series of terrorist acts. On the territory of Ukraine.

For the past several days, Messr. Avakov and his assistant Shkiryak have been conducting preparation for this in the mass media. The goal of this is to blame the terrorist acts on Russia and to introduce a regime of total dictatorship on the territory of Ukraine. The maximum goal is to create the conditions for a NATO military intervention, and of the Polish-Lithuanian contingent in particular.

The responsibility for the operation code-named “Spalokhutemreve” has been placed on an SBU [Ukrainian Security Service] Major, who has been introducing himself as Alexei Nikonov. He is a close associate of Messr. Nalyvaichenko.

This information was provided by high-ranking officials in Kiev, who are concerned for their future after the fall of the Kiev Junta, which inevitably will come.

And so, the Ukrainian Nazis have chosen to follow in the footsteps of their predecessors – the German Nazis. They will now be implementing an operation analogous to the Reichstag Fire. All that can be said is that they are following in the footsteps of their predecessors.

What should the common people, now listening to this address, do? In the next several days, do not visit places of public concentration of people. Try either not to use public transportation or to use it as sparingly as possible. In particular, this concerns the metro system. Pay close attention to looking after your children. Look after your buildings’ cellars and entranceways, to ensure that no strangers go there and that no unknown cargos are deposited in your cellars and entranceways.

Please disseminate this information to your acquaintances, friends and neighbours – to anyone that you can. And may God help us.

Translated from Russian by Gleb Bazov
Original: Cold War and Novorossiya VKontakte Posting

#2 - Warning from "Cold War and Novorossiya"

Dear Compatriots!

In particular, this concerns the residents of Pavlograd, in the Dnepropetrovsk region! Please read this message and pass it on to everyone!

A terrifying provocation is being prepared in the city of Pavlograd, in the Dnepropetrovsk region. This magnitude of this provocation in terms of casualties will many times over exceed the number of victims of the crash of the Malaysian Boeing!

Kolomoiskiy and the Kiev Junta have prepared groups of Russian-speaking militants who, under the guise of militiamen, will organize a “night of long knives” in Pavlograd. Hundreds of peaceful civilians will die! This will be staged as “payback” for those who died in the Lugansk and the Donetsk Republics.

False witnesses, who will confirm this, have already been prepared. It may happen as soon as this night! The Nazis should not be permitted to kill with impunity!

Please repost this message to all your acquaintances and love ones, call them! The more people know about this, the lower the likelihood that it will happen!

Our lack of indifference must stop the immoral monsters that have concocted this terrifying provocation! Do not take sin upon yourself, have pity on the people that may be murdered!
#3 - The Kiev City State Administration

Note: Not translated here, but on July 25, 2014, the Kiev City State Administration published on its website the following documents, relating to the "Information for the Protection of the Population of the City of Kiev and the Order for Dissemination of Information in the Event of Technogenic/Manmade, Natural or Military Emergencies"
Reminder Notice; and,
Original Policy Document.

Complete story at - The Vineyard of the Saker: Warning of Impending Terrorist Acts by the Kiev Junta

Oath of a Novorossiya Freedom Fighter

Original title: Oath of Ukrainian

I hope this man's statement inspires many others...

MH17 Verdict: Real Evidence Points to US-Kiev Cover-up of Failed False Flag

Until this past Monday, the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17th, 2014, was a potential game changer for global geopolitics and the New Cold War. However, a funny thing happened on the way to the Kremlin ...

In this report, we will lay out the facts based on a wide breadth of available information and data surrounding MH17. We will also present and give critique to Washington and Kiev's "mountain of evidence" that has saturated US and European-based media coverage since the incident took place. 21WIRE has compiled this report with the help of many contributors and references from English-speaking media, as well as material translated from Russian and Ukrainian media sources, along with other historical references to provide context. Our objective is to get as close to the truth as possible. Although many revelations will appear to be self-evident, we still encourage the public to draw there own conclusions regarding this pivotal event.

There are other well-known anomalies surrounding this event which have been covered at 21WIRE, as well as connections to MH370, but for the purposes of this investigation we will focus on both factual and speculative evidence brought forth by the US, Ukraine and Russia.

As we will clearly demonstrate, the only wild conspiracy theories being pushed right now, are those coming out of the US State Department, and the government in Kiev, Ukraine, which are being repeated by CNN, BBC, FOX-NewsCorp, ABC, CBS and NBC ...

The Brink of War

Last Monday morning was not a pleasant one for the US State Department. Russian officials surprised Washington and its NATO partners when it released all available satellite imagery and air traffic control data which was recorded in and around the final minutes of Flight MH17 - and presented it to the world media on live television. The data painted a very different picture, drawing contrasting conclusions to what Washington and Kiev officials had been disseminating via western media since July 17th. Following their presentation, Moscow handed its findings - air traffic data and time stamped satellite imagery - to European authorities. We will review those findings in detail later in this report. In stark contrast, US officials have been reluctant to do the same. Is Washington willing to share any object data or evidence to the public, or is it only interested in sharing that which somehow fits into the same predetermined narrative it stood by on July 17th, one which already assigned guilt to both rebel fighters in eastern Ukraine and Russia?

We hope that political leaders and media organizations in the US and Europe will take the time to consider all available information, rather than simply repeat and spin what is bouncing around the media echo chamber. It's also crucial to understand the geopolitical context in which this incident has occurred in order to discover who really possessed the motive, and the means to destroy this passenger aircraft, and which parties stand to benefit most from such an international incident.

After reviewing the evidence, all indicators points to the downing of MH17 as a highly coordinated, but failed false flag event.

Complete story at - MH17 Verdict: Real Evidence Points to US-Kiev Cover-up of Failed False Flag

The Situation in Mariupol, Ukraine - July 24, 2014 | No Limit to Our Anger (c) V. M. Molotov

Excerpted from Igor Strelkov and Militia Briefings, July 24, 2014 | No Limit to Our Anger (c) VM Molotov

NoBC4U Note: This is an excerpt from the above mentioned article, which is quite long and detailed about the SITUATION in Novorossiya. Selected Portions I have focusing on the situation in the city of Mariupol.

July 24, 2014 - Report from a Local Resident of Mariupol

Gasoline A92 is 15 hryvnia 85 kopecks. Many companies and small factories only work to 50% of their capacity, many have sent their staff on unpaid vacation. The large factories are holding, but I know for a fact that people at Azovmash have been working an incomplete week since winter.

Vegetables on the market are cheap (after all, we are in the south), but, generally, food has become more expensive. A regular bus ticket is 4 hryvnia. I have not paid for communal services yet, but I know that electricity and hot water have risen in price. Electricity is now 30% more expensive.

The city is controlled by Battalions Azov and Dnepr. They are taking away people's cars; there are a lot of incidents of people disappearing, drunken shooting, raider takeovers [of businesses]. What is going is that they are completely terrorizing the populace. At the same time, they have painted fences, garbage urns, posts, and benches in the colours of the Ukrainian flag. They are constantly organizing some kinds of flashmobs on the topic of love for Ukraine. The men are terrified, waiting for mobilization. They are figuring out ways to escape to join the Militia or to dig cellars to wait everything out there before it is too late.

.....

July 24, 2014 - The Situation in the Occupied Mariupol

Notes from a local resident with respect to the situation in the largest city of DPR [Donetsk People's Republic] that is occupied by the Nazis.

With respect to the mobilization: there are rumours that the quota for Mariupol was set at 5, ooo - 20,000 conscripts (depending on the source), and for the Volodarskiy district - 2,000. And here is the most interesting fact - All! All of my friends who had served in the army in the past are planning to flee to Russia or to join the Militia (as they are the first on the list to be mobilized). In other words, no one wants to fight for Ukraine.

I do not know the situation with the local Ukies who sympathize with the Junta (there are none among my close friends), but there have been no lineups in front of conscription centres.

The local metallurgy is almost finished. One of the plants has gone bankrupt. Two more are about to, due to the Ukie Nazi Guard [National Guard] destroying the Avdeevka Coke-chemical plant. It is not clear what will happen in the future. Without metallurgy, the city will not last long.

Ukies run around town, wave their flags, organize auto-caravans in support of Ukiestan, draw Ukie flags everywhere they find space.

However, normal, sane people are not asleep either - the Ukie flags painted on posts and other constructions are regularly sprayed with red paint (to demonstrate that the flag has been smeared with blood).

It is Remarkable That CERTAIN areas in the UKIE Painted Flags Remain smeared in "blood" for weeks - no one erases IE or repaints Them. This is an Indication That those Who Draw Them are not local, BUT That Were they sent in to sweep the area and paint their scribbles wherever they could.

Numerous people have "suddenly" disappeared in the city. There is a ton of "Help Us to Locate" and "He Left and Never Returned" ads posted around.

The city is surrounded with Ukie checkpoints that seem in no hurry to leave the city. Looks like Taruta is terrified. At the checkpoints, there are a lot of Ukie-speakers, but there are also some Russian-speakers present.

Lately, we have noticed a lot of vehicles bearing Kiev registration plates (the AA series). This is very strange.

A great number of very strange "refugees" have taken up residence in the city - they sunbathe at the beach, relax in cafes and clubs, drink, entertain themselves, shoot fireworks, enjoy themselves - not a shred of fear, no concern or anxiety . It is as if they are not refugees at all, and, yet, they keep saying that they are from Donetsk or Lugansk. But not everyone is like that. There are also a great many of those who arrived penniless. These refugees are assisted by volunteers, special organization and concerned residents.

Complete story at - Igor Strelkov and briefings Militia, July 24, 2014 | No Limit to Our Anger (c) VM Molotov

The 4th Media » BRICS against Washington Consensus: Death Sentence for the Neoliberalism?

by Pepe Escobar

The headline news is that this Tuesday in Fortaleza, northeast Brazil, the BRICS group of emerging powers (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) fights the (Neoliberal) World (Dis) Order via a new development bank and a reserve fund set up to offset financial crises.

The devil, of course, is in the details of how they'll do it.

It's been a long and winding road since Yekaterinburg in 2009, at their first summit, up to the BRICS's long-awaited counterpunch against the Bretton Woods consensus - the IMF and the World Bank - as well as the Japan-dominated (but largely responding to US priorities) Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The BRICS Development Bank - with an initial US $ 50 billion in capital - will be not only BRICS-oriented, but invest in infrastructure projects and sustainable development on a global scale. The model is the Brazilian BNDES, which supports Brazilian companies investing across Latin America. In a few years, it will reach a financing capacity of up to $ 350 billion.

With extra funding especially from Beijing and Moscow, the new institution could leave the World Bank in the dust. Compare access to real capital savings to US government's printed green paper with no collateral.

And then there's the agreement establishing a $100 billion pool of reserve currencies - the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), described by Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov as "a kind of mini-IMF". That's a non-Washington consensus mechanism to counterpunch capital flight. For the pool, China will contribute with $ 41 billion, Brazil, India and Russia with $ 18 billion each, and South Africa with $ 5 billion.

Complete story at - The 4th Media »BRICS Against Washington Consensus: Death Sentence for the Neoliberalism?

Open borders: punish the people for the government’s sins « Jon Rappoport's Blog

by Jon Rappoport

July 10, 2014

www.nomorefakenews.com

"I used to wonder why God used a prop like the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil to inflict guilt on Adam & Eve, until I realized it could have been a steak or a plate of fries or a bagel. Anything. Making people feel guilty is a staple of religion and society in general. It works. And if you can transfer guilt from a real criminal to an innocent bystander, you've really got something going. It's a magic stage trick that can make a career. "- Jon Rappoport, The Underground

Let's cut to the chase, which is the moral argument. That's where all the juice and outrage are.

We're supposed to support unlimited immigration because we sinned, somewhere, somehow, at some time. Isn't that the underlying idea? Come on. Isn't that the subliminal moral imperative that's being shoved down our throats, along with a heavy dose of political correctness?

This is the political version of the mythical Fall from Grace, right?

We did bad things to the people coming across the border, so we have to pay. America is evil, and it's our fault. We need to be punished.

But hold on. Who is "we" and what exactly is "America"? And which evil are we talking about?

We're talking about this: the American government, along with mega-corporations, went into foreign lands, waged covert wars, and gobbled up as much cheap labor and as many resources as possible-while doing their best to help corrupt dictators keep their populations in wretched conditions under tight control. So specific bad actors in the US government and corporations were criminals.

How does unlimited immigration punish these specific criminals for their crimes?

It doesn't.

It punishes the American people. The strain on public services will be very heavy. The US economy is already in bad shape, and unlimited immigration will make things far worse.

Here is the crux, and it applies to immigration and other crises: the justice system is supposed to root out criminals and punish them. In this case, we're talking about those high-level US government officials and mega-corporate executives who, for a very long time, have been plundering the underdeveloped world. There is the guilt. There is the target. There is the crime, for which unlimited immigration is supposed to be payback. But when justice doesn't prevail, when the people who should be prosecuting crimes are allied with those committing the crimes, nothing happens. And then, voila, the generality appears. "All Americans are guilty of international plunder."

Complete story at - Open Borders: punish the People for the Government's Sins "Jon Rappoport's Blog

I Guess "The Who" Were Wrong

"Won't Get Fooled Again"

We'll be Fighting in the Streets 
With Our Children at Our feet 
And the morals Worship That they will be gone 
And the men Who spurred us on 
Sit in judgement of ALL Wrong 
They DECIDE and the shotgun sings the song 

I'll tip My hat to the new constitution 

Take a bow for the new revolution 

Smile and Grin at the Change ALL around 

Pick up My Guitar and Play 

Just Like yesterday 

Then I'll get on My knees and pray 

We don't get fooled again 

The Change, it HAD to Come 

We Knew it ALL Along 

We Were liberated from the fold, That's ALL 

And the World looks just the Same 

And History Is not CHANGED 

'Cause the banners, they are flown in the next War 

I'll tip My hat to the new constitution 

Take a bow for the new revolution 

Smile and Grin at the Change ALL around 

Pick up My Guitar and Play 

Just Like yesterday 

Then I'll get on My knees and pray 

We don't get fooled again 

No, no! 

I'll move My family and myself aside 

If we happen to be Left half Alive 

I'll get ALL My Papers and smile at the sky 

Though I Know That the hypnotized never Lie 

Do ya? 

There's Nothing in the Streets 

Looks Different to any Me 

And Slogans are the replaced, by-the-Bye 

And the parting on the Left 

Are Now parting on the right 

And the beards have ALL Grown longer overnight 

I'll tip My hat to the new constitution 

Take a bow for the new revolution 

Smile and Grin at the Change ALL around 

Pick up My Guitar and Play 

Just Like yesterday 

Then I'll get on My knees and pray 

We don't get fooled again Don't get fooled again 

No, no! 

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! 

Meet the new boss 

Same as the old boss

kenny's sideshow: The Soldier's Revolt

by Joel Geier

Our army that now remains in Vietnam is in a state approaching collapse, with individual units avoiding or having refused combat, murdering their officers and noncommissioned officers, drug-ridden, and dispirited where not near-mutinous conditions exist among American forces in Vietnam that have only been exceeded in this century by...the collapse of the Tsarist armies in 1916 and 1917.

Armed Forces Journal, June 1971

The most neglected aspect of the Vietnam War is the soldiers' revolt--the mass upheaval from below that unraveled the American army. It is a great reality check in an era when the U.S. touts itself as an invincible nation. For this reason, the soldiers' revolt has been written out of official history.

The army revolt pitted enlisted soldiers against officers who viewed them as expendable. Liberal academics have reduced the radicalism of the 1960s to middle-class concerns and activities, while ignoring military rebellion. But the militancy of the 1960s began with the Black liberation struggle, and it reached its climax with the unity of White and Black soldiers.

A working-class army

From 1964 to 1973, from the Gulf of Tonkin resolution to the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam, 27 million men came of draft age. A majority of them were not drafted due to college, professional, medical or National Guard deferments. Only 40 percent were drafted and saw military service. A small minority, 2.5 million men (about 10 percent of those eligible for the draft), were sent to Vietnam.

This small minority was almost entirely working-class or rural youth. Their average age was 19. Eighty-five percent of the troops were enlisted men; 15 percent were officers. The enlisted men were drawn from the 80 percent of the armed forces with a high school education or less. At this time, college education was universal in the middle class.

Complete story at - kenny's sideshow: The Soldier's Revolt

The Vineyard of the Saker: An Afghan Freedom Fighter in Donbass - ENG SUBS

Oh I know what some will say about this video: that is a lie, that this man is not from Afghanistan, that he is getting paid, etc. etc. I don't post this here for them. I post this for the rest of you.

The Saker



Complete story at - The Vineyard of the Saker: An Afghan Freedom Fighter in Donbass - ENG SUBS

Capitalism’s Deeper Problem | Perspectives | BillMoyers.com

Recent press reports refer to troubling price increases for such assets as real estate, government bonds, companies targeted for acquisition and artwork. A New York Times front-page headline read “The Everything Boom, or Maybe the Everything Bubble.”

Yet while asset prices soar, the production of goods and services, employment and workers’ incomes are not recovering and resuming growth. Instead, Western Europe, North America and Japan are stuck in a longer, deeper crisis than almost anyone expected. Millions have left the labor force. Wages, benefits and job security are declining; the so-called “middle classes” are evaporating. Having promised “recoveries,” desperate governments inject massive new quantities of money into their economies. What they accomplish most are fast-rising asset prices.

Given their persistent economic problems, consumers cannot borrow or spend more. Businesses neither borrow nor productively invest all the new, cheap money because they could not sell the extra output to distressed consumers. Instead, the newly injected trillions enable the speculation that drives up asset prices. The owners of those inflating assets celebrate a “recovery” that bypasses most of their fellow citizens. The Great Recession lumbers on.

To understand this puzzling and dangerous situation requires digging deeper than most current discussions of our economic problems. The global crisis since 2007 has captivated discussion about capitalism as a system. Yet we are faced now with more than just this latest of capitalism’s endlessly recurring “downturns” (or recessions or depressions). We see combined an extremely serious downturn in most of capitalism’s old centers, extremely unequal growth in its new centers and a resurgent global speculative bubble. This points to a deeper, worldwide problem that now challenges and threatens contemporary capitalism.

From its beginnings as the emerging, dominant class structure in 18th century England, capitalism concentrated production geographically in what were or became urban areas. This persisted as capitalism spread through Western Europe, North America and Japan. Capitalist growth in urban areas not only drew food, raw materials and laborers from the surrounding countryside, it also generated deepening divisions between town and country. The workers who gathered in industrial towns eventually mobilized and fought successfully for rising wages rarely matched by rural incomes. Urban laborers became an organized, disciplined, productive and relatively well-paid working class.

Complete story at - Capitalism’s Deeper Problem | Perspectives | BillMoyers.com

Does Uncle Sam Have a God Complex?

By Norman Solomon

July 15, 2014 "ICH" - As a matter of faith, some people believe that God can see and hear everything. But as a matter of fact, the U.S. government now has the kind of surveillance powers formerly attributed only to a supreme being.

Top "national security" officials in Washington now have the determination and tech prowess to keep tabs on billions of people. No one elected Uncle Sam to play God. But a dire shortage of democratic constraints has enabled the U.S. surveillance state to keep expanding with steely resolve.

By the time Edward Snowden used NSA documents to expose -- beyond any doubt -- a global surveillance dragnet, the situation had deteriorated so badly because the Bush and Obama administrations were able to dismiss earlier warnings to the public as little more than heresy.

Eight years ago, in the book "State of War," New York Times reporter James Risen devoted a chapter to the huge expansion of surveillance. A secret decision by President Bush "has opened up America's domestic telecommunications network to the NSA in unprecedented and deeply troubling new ways, and represents a radical shift in the accepted policies and practices of the modern U.S. intelligence community," Risen wrote.

Risen added: "The NSA is now tapping into the heart of the nation's telephone network through direct access to key telecommunications switches that carry many of America's daily phone calls and e-mail messages."

Complete story at - Does Uncle Sam Have a God Complex?

The 4th Media » Faced with the US-led Western Freeze-Out, BRICS Bank Is a Coup for Russia

Top of the agenda at the sixth summit of the BRICS developing nations beginning Tuesday is the founding of two multilateral financial institutions designed to erode the dominance of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as arbiters of the global economic system.

For Russia, the creation of a $100 billion BRICS development bank and a reserve currency fund worth another $100 billion is a political coup. Just as the West freezes Russia out of its own economic system as punishment for its politics in Ukraine, Russia is tying itself into the financial superstructure of the next generation of economic heavyweights: India, Brazil, China and South Africa.

The World Bank and the IMF have come under criticism from the rapidly developing BRICS, who together account for 20 percent of global GDP and 40 percent of the world’s population. In their view, the two financial institutions are dominated by the rich nations of the G7 and attach stringent conditions to their lending that impinge on the economic sovereignty of its members.

Far from assuaging their complaints, efforts to reform the 70-year-old institutions have stalled. Proposed updates to the IMF that would grant increased influence to developing economies have been languishing in the U.S. Congress since 2010 and were blocked once again in April.

If the framework agreements due to be signed at the BRICS summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, are ratified at home, the new bank and the reserve fund could ease some problems for the BRICS countries. U.S. tightening of the dollar supply starting last year has caused a wave of crises in developing nations as the cash inflows of the past decade begin to reverse themselves.

Meanwhile, the World Bank estimates the annual need for infrastructure investment in low- and middle-income nations at $1 trillion dollars and rising — far beyond its own capacity. The World Bank reports that it gave out $52.6 billion in 2013, not all of which went to infrastructure projects.

Complete story at - The 4th Media » Faced with the US-led Western Freeze-Out, BRICS Bank Is a Coup for Russia

Company In Which Joe Biden's Son Is Director Prepares To Drill Shale Gas In East Ukraine | Zero Hedge

Recall what we said earlier today: the proxy Ukraine war just like that in Syria preceding it, "is all about energy."

Recall also the following chart showing Ukraine's shale gas deposits, keeping in mind that the Dnieper-Donets basin which lies in the hotly contested eastern part of the nation and where as everyone knows by now a bloody civil war is raging, is the major oil and gas producing region of Ukraine accounting for approximately 90 per cent of Ukrainian production and according to EIA may have 42 tcf of shale gas resources technically recoverable from 197 tcf of risked shale gas in place.



.....

Still confused? It's very simple, really.

In a nutshell Ukraine (or rather its puppetmasters) has decided to let no crisis (staged or otherwise) or rather civil war, go to waste, and while the fighting rages all around, Ukrainian troopers are helping to install shale gas production equipment near the east Ukrainian town of Slavyansk, which was bombed and shelled for the three preceding months, according to local residents cited by Itar Tass. The reason for the scramble? Under peacetime, the process was expected to take many years, during which Europe would be under the energy dictatorship of Putin. But throw in some civil war and few will notice let alone care that a process which was expected to take nearly a decade if not longer while dealing with broad popular objections to fracking, may instead be completed in months!

“Civilians protected by Ukrainian army are getting ready to install drilling rigs. More equipment is being brought in,” they said, adding that the military are encircling the future extraction area.

The people of Slavyansk, which is located in the heart of the Yzovka shale gas field, staged numerous protest actions in the past against its development. They even wanted to call in a referendum on that subject. Environmentalists are particularly concerned with the consequences of hydrofracing, a method used for shale gas extraction, because it implies the use of extremely toxic chemical agents which can poison not only subsoil waters but also the atmosphere. Experts claim that not a single country in the world has invented a method of utilization of harmful toxic agents in the process of development of shale gas deposits.

Countries like the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and France have given up plans to develop shale gas deposits in their territories.

Complete story at - Company In Which Joe Biden's Son Is Director Prepares To Drill Shale Gas In East Ukraine | Zero Hedge

I'm confused, can anyone help me? Part 2 — RT Op-Edge

I'm confused. Jen Psaki, US State Department spokesperson, says that the Ukrainian government has 'every right' to use air strikes against its opponents in Ukraine on the grounds that it 'is defending the country'.

Yet in 2011, alleged air strikes by Libyan government forces against its opponents were used as a reason for the imposition of a 'no-fly zone' which was followed by a NATO-led military intervention against Libya. We were told that the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was 'killing his own people' and had to be stopped. The deaths of over 200 people in Libya was, according to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 'unacceptable'. But the Ukrainian government is killing its own people today, and despite more than 200 people being killed (as of 10th July the number of civilian deaths was 478, including seven children), western leaders do not say that the Ukrainian leader, Petro Poroshenko, has to be stopped, or that the bloodshed is 'unacceptable' and nor are there any calls for a 'no-fly zone' to be imposed. Why is it acceptable for the Ukrainian government to launch a military offensive, including air strikes against its own people, but unacceptable for the Libyan government in 2011 to do likewise? I'm confused. Can anyone help me?

In the lead up to the US-led military intervention against Libya in 2011, western politicians and commentators couldn't stop talking about the country. These caring 'humanitarians', it seemed, had so much concern for the plight of the Libyan people. Three years on, and Libya is in chaos, with regular fighting between rebel militia. Only on Sunday it was reported at least seven people had been killed and over 30 injured in clashes between rival militias near Tripoli's international airport. But despite Libya's troubles, western politicians and leading commentators are no longer mentioning the country, in fact it seems they've forgotten about it all together. Why were they so interested in Libya and the plight of its people in 2011, but not interested today? I'm confused. Can anyone help me?

In Britain, neocon pundits and politicians warn us repeatedly about the threat of radical Islam at home. We are told of alleged sinister plots by Islamic extremists to take control of our classrooms. Yet the same neocons who want us to be worried about the 'threat' of radical Islam, have supported the violent overthrow of the secular Syrian government by rebels dominated by Islamic jihadists who have beheaded and blown up many people. These same neocons also backed radical Islamic fighters in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Why are the neocons so opposed to what they regard as Islamic extremism at home, but so supportive of it in certain countries abroad? If ' Islamic extremism' really is such a bad thing, then surely it is a bad thing everywhere? I'm confused. Can anyone help me?

Britons who have fought with anti-government rebels in Syria have been arrested under anti-terrorist legislation when they have returned home.

Complete story at - I'm confused, can anyone help me? Part 2 — RT Op-Edge

Report: Russia Wants to Reopen Spy Base in Cuba

Russia wants to get closer to the United States — in a Cold War kind of way.

The Russian government and Cuba have agreed to reopen a massive Soviet-era spy base on the outskirts of Havana, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant.

The base, just 150 miles off the coast of the United States, originally opened in 1964 after the Cuban missile crisis. Russia shut the spy installation down in 2002 because of lack of funds and as a goodwill gesture toward the American government in what was then a better diplomatic climate. If it reopens, the listening post would be Russia's only intelligence-gathering center in the Western hemisphere.

The deal between the two governments, announced after President Vladimir Putin's visit to the island last week, could not be independently confirmed.

"All I can say is — finally!" an anonymous Russian government source told the newspaper.

Complete story at - Report: Russia Wants to Reopen Spy Base in Cuba

Ukrainian Soldiers – Abandoned in Zelenopillia, Corpses All Around Them | No Limit to Our Anger (c) V. M. Molotov

The video, should you choose to watch it,  is not in English, nor does it have English subtitles. The English transcript of the video is below... 



Announcer: Piles of dead bodies as heritage of slaughter near Zelenopillia, – this is the story of those who were lucky enough to survive and come back home.

Extraordinary News met the airborne troops who categorically reject the official data of their commanders saying that 19 were killed in action. Troops were slaughtered by Grad MLRS; exploding shells were sending torn-off limbs flying in all directions, it was hard to find survivors among the dead bodies. And now we’ll tell you about war with no censorship.

CAPTION: Bogdan Lozitsky, Recruit

Soldier: In general, I am a person who takes initiative. I joined the army voluntarily, and my position is that if your country calls you, you have to go and defend it.

Announcer: This video was shown in mid-March, when they were mobilizing in the Kiev Region, Bogdan wanted to be on the front lines as soon as possible, and when they sent him to the East to defend the Ukrainian border, and there he had a chance to see what real inferno looks like.

CAPTION: Bogdan Lozitsky, serviceman of the 72nd Special Mechanized Brigade

Bogdan: Those torn-off arms and hands, torn-off legs … People were dying in front of my eyes, in my arms they were dying. Burned people… There were people who could not get up from their beds. There were tents, and they had just gone to sleep. Everything burned, there were no people left, just arms and legs scattered around.

Announcer: Bogdan remembers with horror the events of the 13th of July. Their unit was deployed in the camp of the 24th Brigade near Zelenopilla, and commanders there, in his opinion, were giving absurd orders that left both men and equipment and ammo in the middle of an open field whereas there was, in fact, a forested area nearby.

CAPTION: Denis, serviceman of the 72nd Special Mechanized Brigade

I woke up from the sound of explosions, from something hitting the ground. The earth just shakes when they shell you like that.

Announcer: About 40 salvos from Grad MLRS in a few short minutes turned the soldiers’ camp into one bloody mess.

Bogdan: Those who were missing their legs, we were trying to bandage them to stop the bleeding. Where we could, we provided them with drippers. Not a single commissioned officer! We had there, not a single one! There were those shouts, that noise – wounded there, dead here.. Men were burning, men were missing their legs. One was missing a leg while the other leg still had a foot attached, hanging every which way like that, and you do not know what to do with that person. We carried him away, we put him down, but literally several minutes later – that’s it, he was dead. Another one wasshell shocked, he could not say a word, do anything….

Announcer: All pleas for help were in vain – the commanders, Bogdan says, were not even planning to send in any reinforcements.

Bogdan: We call our commander, we say, ‘Save us, get us out of here’, and he says: ‘What, you are still alive? No, no one will get you out of there – you are not supposed to be there at all. Officially, you are not there. Get out of there any way you like’. And then he says: ‘What about the equipment, is it still there?’ ‘WHAT equipment can there be??? All of the equipment was burned, the Ural truck, gone completely, machine guns, rifles, documents, clothes, everything burned down. And that KamAz truck – God bless that driver, Taras, who was wounded, wounded, but he pressed together those brushes that were stuck in that truck, and succeeded in moving it all aside, for it not to explode.

Announcer: Bogdan is showing a video of the annihilated military camp.

Bogdan: Do you see that spot? Guys were lying down there, who came to defend their Motherland. Nothing’s left … No legs, no heads, just one arm left, and that one is burned, because those in that fire no one was supposed to survive.

Announcer: Not yet coming back to their senses after the first strike, the soldiers faced another one. As soon as they re-deployed to another location, they faced more fire, this time the terrorists added mortar shell to the Grad rockets, and in the face of death, soldiers were thinking of their families.

Bogdan: My wife was calling me, and I had hardly survived, but what was I supposed to tell her? My mom was calling, asking me: ‘Where are you?’ I say: ‘A am in Zhitomir, mom, I’m I Zhitomir, do not worry. Everything is all right, I sleep, I eat, I am clean, I have clothes’. Whereas I drink rainwater and we lie down on our bulletproof vests.

Announcer: The soldiers call their survival ‘a miracle’, they were granted a 10-day leave to take a breath, but even here, they find no rest.

Denis: When you are recovering, it’s hard, hard, very hard to take all that, because you close your eyes, and you see the same picture.

Bogdan: And now our comrades are harassed by the military prosecutors: Where is the Ural truck? Where are the armaments? Where is the ammo?’ ‘What do you mean, where? It all burned down, complete with those men. They don’t have their body parts – some missing their legs, some missing their arms, some missing their eyes, their heads, some only have half a body left. Why is it that they are not asking where those people are? Why are they interested only in the ammo?

Announcer: Still his thoughts are there with those guys, still there in the field under fire.

Bogdan on the phone: ‘Do they shoot at you a lot?’ Voice on the phone: “Just has six salvos.”

Bogdan: ‘What kind of salvos?’ Voice on the phone: ‘What kind? Grad salvos, of course.”

Bogdan: ‘Just hold on, my brother, humanitarian assistance will arrive, everything you need will be there, in any case, somehow, we’ll get you out of there. We’ll raise the people, we’ll get you out of there in any case, you should not be there at all now. Bye, my brother, good luck to you’. Voice on the phone: ‘We hope so, good luck to you too’.

Announcer: They are trying to cover up the scale of the tragedy near Zelenopilia, how else are they going to explain the official announcement of 19 men KIA?

Bogdan: What kind of data can you have in general? From a person who was not there at all? What kind of data can that person provide? Four Ural trucks full of people who were killed. Right now you cannot call them, God forgive me, half-men, now they are just dead bodies. Just legs, just rams – four full trucks.

Announcer: The soldiers are certain that the fatal error was not negligence, it was treason, but nevertheless, they will return to the front lines, for who else will do it?

Bogdan: I am really a patriot, I really volunteered, and it would be ok, if it had been a battle. They do not even give us an opportunity to shoot back. We are just like blind kittens, squashed and squashed by those Grads. There is no war there, it’s just laundering of the war money, and there is nothing else to it. Done by high military brass. I do not know now what’s going to happen to me after this interview, but I do not care, I want the people to know. Let the people know what is happening there. All that political dividing the spoils by God knows whom, while those dying are ordinary guys, we, just ordinary guys, we are the ones who are doing the dying.

Complete story at - Ukrainian Soldiers – Abandoned in Zelenopillia, Corpses All Around Them | No Limit to Our Anger (c) V. M. Molotov