Russia In The Cross Hairs -- Paul Craig Roberts - PaulCraigRoberts.org

Washington’s attack on Russia has moved beyond the boundary of the absurd into the realm of insanity.

The New Chief of the US Broadcasting Board of Governors, Andrew Lack, has declared the Russian news service, RT, which broadcasts in multiple languages, to be a terrorist organization equivalent to Boko Haram and the Islamic State, and Standard and Poor’s just downgraded Russia’s credit rating to junk status.

Today RT International interviewed me about these insane developments.

In prior days when America was still a sane country, Lack’s charge would have led to him being laughed out of office. He would have had to resign and disappear from public life. Today in the make-believe world that Western propaganda has created, Lack’s statement is taken seriously. Yet another terrorist threat has been identified–RT. (Although both Boko Haram and the Islamic State employ terror, strictly speaking they are political organizations seeking to rule, not terror organizations, but this distinction would be over Lack’s head. Yes, I know. There is a good joke that could be made here about what Lack lacks. Appropriately named and all that.)

Nevertheless, whatever Lack might lack, I doubt he believes his nonsensical statement that RT is a terrorist organization. So what is his game?

The answer is that the Western presstitute media by becoming Ministries of Propaganda for Washington, have created large markets for RT, Press TV, and Al Jazeera. As more and more of the peoples of the world turn to these more honest news sources, Washington’s ability to fabricate self-serving explanations has declined.

Complete story at - Russia In The Cross Hairs -- Paul Craig Roberts - PaulCraigRoberts.org

Ukraine: When the Lunatics Run the Asylum - English pravda.ru

Arsen Avakov is Certifiable

Arsen Avakov, the make believe "Minister of Internal Affairs," is certifiably insane. Anyone can check out his facebook page and read the lunatic's very own words. He believes in human sacrifice, that Ukraine needs "atonement" in the form of human lives, which explains why he is directing a Genocidal, murderous campaign in Novorossiya, committing crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes against peace.

Avakov also considers their people who die carrying out his orders as part of the "atonement." He also stupidly makes a reference between ATO (anti-terrorist operation) and the English equivalent to "ATOnment" as though it has some sort of mystical significance. He has a sick mind, not unlike the rest of the illegal junta, particularly Mr. "subhuman" Yatsenyuk, and Doctor Strangelove Timoshenko who wants to resort to the use of nuclear weapons to get rid of the pesky Russians.

These words are from Arsen Avakov, Ukraine's "Minister of Internal Affairs" June 23,2014 FaceBook page --- https://www.facebook.com/arsen.avakov.1

In these few days talking a lot with our zone ATU - from general to soldier. And I want to say a few words about the truly important things. War cannot generate light feelings. But we can generate cleansing. False and superficial burns in the fire of war very quickly - as if deliberately leaving space THIS .. Through disorder and pain, through the death of comrades and the need to kill in response, through fear for their relatives, through observation of grief, people deprived of their home .. all not just in this war, and this purification and redemption for everyone - you need as a prerequisite of victory .. Atonement. It comes as the inevitable fee perfect. And each is his redemption - and me and you and the Donbass and Ukraine. And everyone is given as much as earned and how many survive ..Ukraine stand, and you do not give up. Bite the bullet and bear their redemption. And do, do what you have to! P / S Today noticed a strange coincidence, the English words atonement - ATOnement .. ATO- Anti-Terrorist Operation.

There can be absolutely no doubt at this point about the Satanic, fascist nature of the junta and its followers. Is humanity going to allow this plague to spread, because spread it will as history shows us. Forget history and you are doomed to repeat it.

Complete story at - Ukraine: When the Lunatics Run the Asylum - English pravda.ru

10 Things I Learned About the World from Ayn Rand's Insane "Atlas Shrugged' | Alternet

Over the past year, I've been reading and reviewing Ayn Rand's massive paean to capitalism, Atlas Shrugged. If you're not familiar with the novel, it depicts a world where corporate CEOs and one-percenters are the selfless heroes upon which our society depends, and basically everyone else — journalists, legislators, government employees, the poor — are the villains trying to drag the rich down out of spite, when we should be kissing their rings in gratitude that they allow us to exist.

Rand's protagonists are Dagny Taggart, heir to a transcontinental railroad empire, and Hank Rearden, the head of a steel company who's invented a revolutionary new alloy which he's modestly named Rearden Metal. Together, they battle against evil government bureaucrats and parasitic socialists to hold civilization together, while all the while powerful industrialists are mysteriously disappearing, leaving behind only the cryptic phrase "Who is John Galt?"

Atlas Shrugged is a work of fiction, but as far as many prominent conservatives are concerned, it's sacred scripture. Alan Greenspan was a member of Rand's inner circle, and opposed regulation of financial markets because he believed her dictum that the greed of businessmen was always the public's best protection. Paul Ryan said that he required his campaign staffers to read the book, while Glenn Beck has announced grandiose plans to build his own real-life "Galt's Gulch," the hidden refuge where the book's capitalist heroes go to watch civilization collapse without them.

Reading Atlas Shrugged is like entering into a strange mirror universe where everything we thought we knew about economics and morality is turned upside down. I've already learned some valuable lessons from it.

1. All evil people are unattractive; all good and trustworthy people are handsome.  (more at link)

2. The mark of a great businessman is that he sneers at the idea of public safety.  (more at link)

3. Bad guys get their way through democracy; good guys get their way through violence.  (more at link)

4. The government has never invented anything or done any good for anyone.  (more at link)

5. Violent jealousy and degradation are signs of true love.  (more at link)

6. All natural resources are limitless.  (more at link)

7. Pollution and advertisements are beautiful; pristine wilderness is ugly and useless.  (more at link)

8. Crime doesn't exist, even in areas of extreme poverty.  (more at link)

9. The only thing that matters in life is how good you are at making money.  (more at link)

10. Smoking is good for you.  (more at link)


Complete story at - 10 Things I Learned About the World from Ayn Rand's Insane "Atlas Shrugged' | Alternet

Ground Troops to Ukraine, Really Mr. Ambassador?

by Col. DOUGLAS MACGREGOR

In a 15 April OPED published in the Washington Post, former Ambassador and Bush Deputy National Security Advisor, James Jeffrey, now a fellow at the Washington Institute argues for the commitment of American ground forces to “quell the crisis” in Ukraine. In yet another American triumph of ill-considered military adventurism over statecraft, Ambassador Jeffrey seems to think Mr. Putin will be impressed with the gradual appearance of a few U.S. Army ground units on Russia’s border. Meanwhile, like Secretary Kerry, Ambassador Jeffrey is ignoring the simple truth that Mr. Putin is doing the West a favor by removing the Russians from Ukraine through annexation.

The good news is that Mr. Putin is creating the conditions for the emergence of a free, democratic and smaller, as well as, demographically more homogenous Ukrainian State. A quick glance at Ukrainian election results over the last several years demonstrates conclusively that the Ukrainians living west of the Dnieper River in overwhelming numbers want to divorce themselves from Russia and live inside Europe.

Instead of threatening Moscow, it is now time for Secretary of State Kerry and his colleagues in the European Union to ask Mr. Ranko Krivokapic, the President of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to meet with Mr. Putin and propose an OSCE-monitored plebiscite in Ukraine’s Russian speaking areas. If the population in Eastern Ukraine wants to join Russia, then, they should be allowed to vote themselves into Russia with a plebiscite. However, at the same time, the Ukrainians in the West should be allowed to join the EU without joining the NATO Alliance, much like Sweden, Austria, or Finland. This outcome would provide Mr. Putin with what he thinks he wants and Ukraine’s true Ukrainians with what they want: membership in the European Union. None of these developments or proposals involves a military confrontation between Russia and the West.

Complete story at - Ground Troops to Ukraine, Really Mr. Ambassador? »

Michael Lewis: "Wall Street has gone insane" | Business | The Guardian

On a sliding scale of difficulty, writing a general-interest book about high-frequency trading is slightly harder than making baseball statistics interesting, but easier than animating the role played by quantitative analysis in the 2007 financial collapse. "Collateralised debt obligations," says Michael Lewis, who has written about all three, "are impossible to describe. There's nothing harder. However, trying to show a reader how a market moves? How stock prices move? You can already see them tuning out."

That was the concern when he wrote Flash Boys, an investigation into what he calls the "rigged" underbelly of Wall Street trading. In the event, the book has sold a staggering 130,000 copies in the US in its first week of publication. (By comparison, The Big Short, his biggest seller to date, sold 60,000 in its first week.)

Lewis has been on every talk show and financial news panel in the land, arguing with, among others, Bill O'Brien, the president of the Bats Global Markets stock exchange, about whether or not he and his cohorts are ripping off their customers. If the 53-year-old started off angry, opposition to the book has sharpened his stance into a moral crusade. "I find this story really upsetting," he says over lunch in LA, where his publicity tour just ended. "The idea that the smartest, richest elites of society find this an acceptable activity. This predatory activity."

If it's emotional for Lewis, then the responses have been emotional too, given how unequivocal his accusations are. The cornerstone of Flash Boys is a discovery made by an obscure Canadian banker, Brad Katsuyama, who noticed that whenever he tried to execute a trade, the stock price moved before the order went through. A long and tortured investigation revealed that the variable speeds at which trading information travels down fibre-optic cables to the exchanges was being exploited by brokers and high-frequency traders – so-called for the volume of trades they make – to jump the queue, buy the stocks in question and sell them back at a higher price to the person who expressed the original interest.

Complete story at - Michael Lewis: 'Wall Street has gone insane' | Business | The Guardian



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