The US War against Iraq -- The Destruction of a Civilization - posted at ICH
A quote...."August 21, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- The US seven-year war and occupation of Iraq is driven by several major political forces and informed by a variety of imperial interests. However these interests do not in themselves explain the depth and scope of the sustained, massive and continuing destruction of an entire society and its reduction to a permanent state of war. The range of political forces contributing to the making of the war and the subsequent US occupation include the following (in order of importance):"

Capitalist Attacks on Tradition and Culture.
Must Read - A quote...."When most people think of attacks on other countries by the United States, their thoughts turn to missiles, bombs and soldiers. When they think of the victims of those invasions and occupations, their thoughts turn to the injured, the dead and some remember their grieving families. But what receives little press coverage are other kinds of invasion by the U.S., Britain, Israel and their international crime partners. These invasions are executed with the weapons of media. -- Attacks on national economies by means of transnational corporations, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are one form of non-military attack on other countries. Another is the subject of this essay -the invasions of family and community structures, traditional values and culture. These are primarily carried out by the media, educational institutions and propaganda arms of NGOs. Properly understood, all these forms of invasion emanate from the capitalist system." -- In other words Neo-Romans say to the peoples of the world, "our money is OUR God, and yee shall worship it with us or die in searing agony". -- Neo-Roman saying, from the secret thirteenth table of the Great Book of Lex Duodecim Tabularum.  For more on this issue see the video & quote shown below....


GOLDFELLAS (Goodfellas spoof of Goldman Sachs) - Alt - (YuTb - 3m37s - 08/16/09) Video - Good video - Contains harsh langauge. - mpg -- A quote...."When you think of that missing 23 TRILLION DOLLARS the Fed has handed out to its buddies like Goldman Sachs and refuses to say who got the loot or what is being done with the haul, then maybe this video isn't so funny?" -- Second  quote...."Comedian Matt Rittberg (www.mattrittberg.com) creates a hilarious spoof of "Goodfellas" based on Goldman Sachs outrageous compensation and Wall Street excess."

Reflecting on Iran’s Presidential Election
A quote...."Questions that Beg to be Asked -- US and European corporate media, political pundits and “Iran experts” have spent countless hours discussing the June presidential election in Iran. Yet, they have utterly failed to ask a number of central questions that beg to be asked:" -- also posted at PulseMedia

"Iceland Recovering From Neoliberal Disaster" - link posted at ICH
Audio Interview - A quote...."Dr. Michael Hudson on Iceland's banking crisis and foreign debt; it's decision to push back against IMF and World Bank austerity; Gordon Brown's role in the Icesave scandal; the capacity to pay principle; similarities with Germany's foreign debt reparations from the 1920s; European Union disarray; media omissions."

Fringe leftist losers: wrong even when they're right
A quote...."That little progression of thought explains much about our political and media culture.  Marcy Wheeler dissects and eviscerates Ambinder's remarkable reaction to the Ridge revelation (Ambinder has now retracted some (though not all) of his more irresponsible assertions).  But Ambinder's comments reveal a couple of other points worth highlighting. -- Just as is still commonly said about opponents of the Iraq War (even though they were right, they were still wrong and unSerious because their motives were bad), Ambinder acknowledges that Bush critics were right that the terror alerts were being manipulated for political ends (he has no choice but to acknowledge that now that Ridge admits it), but still says journalists like himself were right to scorn such critics "because these folks based their assumption on gut hatred for President Bush, and not on any evaluation of the raw intelligence."  As always:  even when the dirty leftist hippies are proven right, they're still Shrill, unSerious Losers who every decent person and "journalist" scorns." - also posted at CommonDreams -- The US-NRE's mass-media presstitutes will never stop, they will continue to help kill millions of people, even people living in this country, on behalf of our wealthy elites. - mpg

Bush admin pressured ex-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge to raise terror warnings pre-election  -- Related Article - A quote...."Top advisers to George W. Bush pressed for a politically-motivated terror alert a few days before the 2004 election, ex-Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge charges in a new book." -- Pretty soon we'll find out all those color "warnings", audio and video tapes produced by the "terrorists", and statements from "unknown but well-placed sources" describing the next dreadful, life-threatening, impending attack, every one of course coincidently released prior to some upcoming vote in Congress to fund our Military Industrial Complex or pass some new piece of unconstitutional legislation converting this nation into a police state, will turn out to be a pack of fabricated lies.  And most "Amerikans" sitting in front of their collective boob-tubes will yawn, drool a little bit, burp, fart, scratch their collective fat butts, and switch their TV channel to something more interesting. Like the newest soap, "reality" or game show. - mpg - bold by website editor -- For more on this issue see....US Fake Intel / Propaganda

The Hobson's Choice of Hamas
A quote...."In late 2005, the Bush administration, along with the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon, promoted parliamentary elections in Palestine. The goal, obvious if unstated, was to provide a popular credential for the government that would be run by the expected to be victorious candidates, members of the Fatah party of Mahmoud Abbas. Since Abbas had won with a decisive 62% of the votes in a January 2005 election to succeed the late Yasser Arafat, the parliamentary election of January 2006 looked like a slam dunk. Hamas, participating for the first time in a national election, along with five or six small parties stood against Fatah. The results, however, surprised most observers by giving the parliamentary majority to Hamas. Fatah won only 45 seats in the new parliament, while Hamas won an absolute majority of 74 in the 132 seat assembly." -- bold by website editor -- For more on this issue see....US Sponsored Civil Wars - Palestine

The U.S. Federal Budget Pipeline - Where Do The Dollars Drain? - posted at ICH
A quote...."August 19, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- -In order to raise sales and personal royalty gains, Alan Greenspan, just prior to the release of his book The Age of Turbulence, carried out a public relations blitz dragged out for a whole week in which he made remarks similar to those conveyed in his hardback. These included statements such as “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” -- Indeed, many Americans and people from other countries knew that domination of a region rich in fossil fuels represented the primary motive for the Iraq incursion and the only significant reason that Iran is not similarly assaulted is that it has an arsenal, unlike Saddam Hussein, capable of rendering serious damage in retaliation (i.e., aimed at U.S. troops in Iraq). Besides, the U.S. military is stretched too thin as it is with approximately 1,000 bases worldwide, along with operations occurring on every continent, such as the AFRICOM sorties, which are generally tied to oil company interests as the map at the first reference shows. [1] "

Report: AF-PAK War And The Battle For Oil
Maps - Charts - A quote...."When announcing his new Afghanistan and Pakistan policy on March 27, 2009, Obama vowed “to disrupt and dismantle” the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan and to “prevent their return to either country in the future.” But who are the Taliban? Any Afghan or Pakistani who resists the US-led occupation."

The Afghan pipe dream
A quote...."America's convoluted, Alice-in-Wonderland interpretation of this summer's top political show - the "free expression of the people" in the Afghanistan election - reads like an opium dream. In fact, it is actually a pipe dream - as in Pipelineistan. With the added twist that no one's saying a word about the pipe that's delivering the opium dream. -- As in an opium dream, delusion reigns. The chances of United States President Barack Obama actually elaborating what his AfPak strategy really is are as likely as having his super-envoy Richard Holbrooke share a pipe with explosive uber-guerrilla warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar."

Russia and Georgia: Caucasian calculus
A quote...."Georgia is to Russia as Colombia is to Venezuela, and Kaidanow spells trouble -- War clouds refuse to disperse a year after Georgia waged war against Russia. On the anniversary of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's ill-fated invasion of South Ossetia 8 August, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev warned: "Georgia does not stop threatening to restore its 'territorial integrity' by force. Armed forces are concentrated at the borders near Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and provocations are committed," including renewed Georgian shelling of the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali."

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On Inflation, Deflation & The Fed - 08-17-09 - mpg

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Has Obama Sold Out Already?  - (YouTube - 9 min 33 sec - August 13, 2009)
Video - He's one of this website editor's heroes - The Young Turks analyzes Obama's "supposed" health care deal and comes to a disappointing conclusion about the deal, Obama, the "process" and the "system".

John Pilger: Empire, Obama, and the Last Taboo
Alt - Excerpt (YuTb  5m28s  08/13/09) - Alt - Full Speech (YuTb  32m27s  07/31/09)
Videos -- Absolutely Outstanding !! - mpg -- A quote...."John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US."

Barack Obama, Front Man for the ‘Man’: "For the Empire getting Obama elected was a Win-win Solution" -- Quote of the Day...."I contend that ever since the first slave ship left the shores of Africa, the ideology of racism has been central to the success of capitalism. Without it and the wealth that slavery produced, Europe and its bastard offspring, the United States, would never have accumulated the capital that made today’s world possible. And if the corrosive and utterly destructive effects of the ideology of racism werre not apparent to you before the election of Barack ‘Hope & Change’ Obama, then surely by now they should be, and especially its effects on the ‘left’" -- also posted at GlobRsrch

“Well What If There Is No Tomorrow…
A quote...."August 07, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- - …there wasn’t one today.” Sadly, it seems this memorable line from the charming comedy film classic, Groundhog Day, now carries a highly foreboding relevance to our present times. Indeed, what if there is no tomorrow? "

Obama, Bush and the Limits of Power
A quote...."It should now be beyond dispute that the Obama administration represents a continuation, solidification and expansion of the Bush legacy, with some minor changes in some areas and a vast acceleration of government growth in others. And yet, as we can joyously witness, the president is running into problems. -- The most conspicuous feature of the Bush years was the nearly invincible faith in government power in the realm of national security. So pronounced was this trust in the national security state, war on terror, and U.S. empire, that the opposing Democrats, many of whom dissented from the Iraq war and the worst excesses in executive spying, detention and torture, looked reasonable in comparison. Many conservatives and libertarians even favored the Democrats in the 2006 election in hopes of reining in the profligate and warmongering Republicans." -- They were tragically wrong. - mpg

Latin America: Social Movements in Times of Economic Crises
A quote...."The most striking aspect of the prolonged and deepening world recession/depression is the relative and absolute passivity of the working and middle class in the face of massive job losses, big cuts in wages, health care and pension payments and mounting housing foreclosures.  Never in the history of the 20-21st Century has an economic crisis caused so much loss to so many workers, employees, small businesses, farmers and professionals with so little large-scale public protest."

Green Shoots or Scorched Earth? - Bulletins From Clunkerville
Quote of the Day...."The banks are using all types of accounting tricks to hide the real losses or the true value of downgraded assets. The only difference between a common crook and a commercial banker is a well-paid accountant."

Health Plans and Death Plans
A quote...."The first illusion to chase off the stage is that the great debate here has much to do with health. So far, as public health is concerned, many of the biggest battles were fought and won a hundred years ago, at the end of the nineteenth century, with better nutrition, birth control, the change from wool to cotton clothing, the introduction of modern sanitation in the urban environment and – most important – clean water."

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What Will They Think of Next! - 08-11-09 - mpg

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Consciousness Capitalism: Corporations Are Now After Our Very Beings
Awwww, Gawd dang, this is really good. - mpg --  A quote...."For all its pretense and manufactured consent, our government is just a corporate racket now, and probably will remain so from here on out. This is a white people's thing, an Anglo-European tradition. Moreover, we no longer get real dictators such as a Hitler, or a good old bone-gnawing despot like Idi Amin. We get money syndicates in powdered wigs or Seville Row suits, cartels of robber barons and banking racketeers." -- also posted at Creative-i

The Real Grand Chessboard and the Profiteers of War
Geo-Political Analysis - A quote...."In the Road to 9/11 I summarized the dialectic of open societies: how from their energy they expand, leading to a higher level of more secretive corporations and agencies, which eventually weaken the home country through needless and crushing wars.[4] I am not alone in seeing America in the final stages of this process, which since the Renaissance has brought down Spain, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. -- Much of what I wrote summarized the thoughts of writers before me like Paul Kennedy and Kevin Phillips. But there is one aspect of the curse of expansion that I underemphasized: how dominance creates megalomanic illusions of insuperable control, and how this illusion in turn is crystallized into a prevailing ideology of dominance."

Nader Was Right: Liberals Are Going Nowhere With Obama
A quote...."The American empire has not altered under Barack Obama. It kills as brutally and indiscriminately in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as it did under George W. Bush. It steals from the U.S. treasury to enrich the corporate elite as rapaciously. It will not give us universal health care, abolish the Bush secrecy laws, end torture or “extraordinary rendition,” restore habeas corpus or halt the warrantless wiretapping and monitoring of citizens. It will not push through significant environmental reform, regulate Wall Street or end our relationship with private contractors that provide mercenary armies to fight our imperial wars and produce useless and costly weapons systems. -- The sad reality is that all the well-meaning groups and individuals who challenge our permanent war economy and the doctrine of pre-emptive war, who care about sustainable energy, fight for civil liberties and want corporate malfeasance to end, were once again suckered by the Democratic Party. They were had. It is not a new story. The Democrats have been doing this to us since Bill Clinton." -- also posted at ICH & CommonDreams & Uruknet

The Downing Street Memo Pt1 - The Dowing Street memo Pt.1 - Alt/Pt.1 & Alt/Pt.2 - (YuTb aprox 10m 081009) -- Real News Videos -- A quote...."Ray McGovern: The "Memo" shows a premeditated war of aggression with intent to deceive."

This is No Recession - It's a Planned Demolition
A quote...."August 10, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- Credit is not flowing. In fact, credit is contracting. That means things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. When credit contracts in a consumer-driven economy, bad things happen. Business investment drops, unemployment soars, earnings plunge, and GDP shrinks. The Fed has spent more than a trillion dollars trying to get consumers to start borrowing again, but without success. The country's credit engines are grinding to a halt. -- Bernanke has increased excess reserves in the banking system by $800 billion, but lending is still slow. The banks are hoarding capital in order to deal with the losses from toxic assets, non performing loans, and a $3.5 trillion commercial real estate bubble that's following housing into the toilet. That's why the rate of bank failures is accelerating. 2010 will be even worse; the list is growing. It's a bloodbath."-- also posted at CounterPunch

How Corrupt is the Economic System of the U.S.A. Today?
By the numbers  - Comparing the US-NRE to the top thirty industrialized nations. - mpg -- A quote...."That is the question.  At one time the high standards of the American lifestyle were the envy of the world.  That day is gone with the wind. -- The 30 nation survey of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2008 placed the poverty rate of the U.S.A. only above Mexico and Turkey.  The economic gap between rich and poor in the U.S.A. was explained in this report in the Seattle Times December 15, 2008: -- "In the United States, the richest 10 percent earn an average of $93,000 -- the highest level in this 30 nation survey.  The poorest 10 percent earn an average of $5,800 -- about 20 percent lower than the average of the 30 nation survey." -- also posted at ICH

Fascist America: Are We There Yet?
Fascist Alert - A quote...."All through the dark years of the Bush Administration, progressives watched in horror as Constitutional protections vanished, [yet they voted for Obama anyway....a big mistake] nativist rhetoric ratcheted up, hate speech turned into intimidation and violence, and the president of the United States seized for himself powers only demanded by history's worst dictators. With each new outrage, the small handful of us who'd made ourselves experts on right-wing culture and politics would hear once again from worried readers: Is this it? Have we finally become a fascist state? Are we there yet?" -- also posted at CommonDreams

David Frakt: Military Commissions “A Catastrophic Failure”
A quote...."Last week, however, when the House Committee on the Judiciary’s Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Subcommittee convened to hear further testimony about the Military Commissions, few media outlets noticed. This was a great shame, as one of the speakers was Lt. Col. (formerly Maj.) David Frakt of the US Air Force Reserves, whose testimony (PDF) was at least as riveting as that of his former adversary in the Military Commissions, Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, the ex-prosecutor who resigned in September 2008. On July 8, Lt. Col Vandeveld told the committee that the Commissions were “broken beyond repair,” and “cannot be fixed, because their very creation — and the only reason to prefer military commissions over federal criminal courts for the Guantánamo detainees — can now be clearly seen as an artifice, a contrivance, to try to obtain prosecutions based on evidence that would not be admissible in any civilian or military prosecution anywhere in our nation.” - also posted at AtheoNews & AftrDwngSt -- For more on this issue see....9/11 - Iraq - Torture Fables

Bush's torture legacy haunts the US
A quote...."Somewhere in the borderlands between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bowe Bergdahl, a US soldier, is being held captive by the Taliban. -- The threat of execution hangs over him if the US does not agree to the still unspecified demands of his captors. --  Bergdahl is the first US soldier captured in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion and the circumstances of his capture, which occurred around July 1 outside a US military base in Helmand Province, remain unclear. --  But in the wake of years of revelations of abuses by US personnel of Iraqis in Abu Ghraib, and of alleged Taliban or al-Qaeda detainees elsewhere, the spectre of US troops in enemy hands is disturbing because of the possibility that they could face copy-cat treatment."

War Looming Against Venezuela
A quote...."If you are sick and tired of war in the Middle East you may be cringing at the prospect of new military operations in Latin America. In case you haven't noticed, there appears to be an impending attack against the people of Venezuela. Obama is increasing the Pentagon's budget and is spending approximately one billion dollars in its Latin American military operations this year according to Eva Gollinger, a well respected American/Venezuelan journalist. -- The problem, in a nutshell, is that the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, is steadfastly independent from Washington's directives and desires. Worse, Chavez is widely popular throughout Latin America and his vision of the Bolivarian revolution is spreading. Most importantly, the spreading defiance against Washington in Latin America compromises future control of vast stores of oil reserves. -- History shows that America has a pathological need to control every nation on the planet. There is no way to tally the numbers that have died due to that need."

The World Needs A Breather From The US. - And they'll get it sooner than many think
A quote...."An example may help to explain how they really work: -- Say you bought a house at the peak of the bubble in 2005 and paid $500,000. Then prices dropped 40% (as they have in Calif) and your house is now worth $300,000. If you only put 5% down, ($25,000) then you are underwater by $175,000. Which means that you own more on the mortgage than your house is currently worth. (This is essentially what has happened to the entire financial system. The equity has vaporized, so institutions are using dodgy accounting tricks instead of reporting their real losses.) So Bernanke comes along and gives you $175,000 no interest, rotating loan to you so that no one knows that you are really busted and you can continue spending just as you had before. Not bad, eh? This is what the lending facilities are all about. It is a charade to conceal the fact that a large portion of the nation's financial institutions are insolvent and propped up by state largess."

"But there's more, too."

"Now that Bernanke has given you $175,000 no interest, rotating loan; you expect that eventually he will ask for his money back. Right? So your only hope of saving your home, in the long run, is to engage in risky behavior, like dabbling the stock market. It's like playing roulette, except you have nothing to lose since you are underwater anyway."

"This is exactly what the financial institutions are doing with the Fed's loans. They're betting on equities and hoping they can avoid the Grim Reaper."

US deficit climbs to 1.3 trillion dollars
A quote...."The US budget deficit reached 1.3 trillion dollars for the current fiscal year in July, official data showed, news set to fuel opposition to US President Barack Obama's ambitious health care and climate change proposals." -- But of course, they're not what's causing the problem. - mpg

The International: The TRUE Value of Conflict (and the nature of “Globalization”)
Video - Alt - A fictional account which gives one an idea of how "Globalization" really works. - mpg -- A quote...."Insider trading prior to 9/11,  Put Options, the promise of the privatization of Iraq’s central banking system… (one of the first things Paul Bremmer did in Iraq when he was brought in as Bush’s head of the newly formed Coalition Provisional Authority, was to establish a privatized central bank) -- In May of 2003, just days after Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” statement…"



"But even MORE valuable than the control of the banking system 2nd biggest oil producing country in the world, was the debt that the “Endless War on Terror” would produce for the banks. For hidden within that debt, is control. -- Imagine: Endless war against an invisible enemy, anywhere in the world, producing limitless debt… and ultimately, complete control."

Long Term Joblessness Chart & The Ten Year Cycle
Chart - Special Note - Percentage of US workers unemployed at least 27 weeks and the Ten Year Cycle. - mpg

The Real World: Mercenaries, Murder and the American Way
A quote...."Who could possibly have suspected this? A Beltway-wired mercenary company hired by the American government to act as freebooting muscle in the war of aggression against Iraq has been accused -- in sworn affidavits from company insiders -- of operating a murder and gun-running racket in order to push its hard-right owner's religious extremism. Can such a thing even be contemplated? Why, the next thing you know, they'll be telling us that good, clean-limbed, all-American agents used KGB-derived torture tactics against helpless captives or something!"

Countdown-The Nation's Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater chief Eric Prince's deep troubles
Video - Must see video - (YuTb 6m10s 08/04/09) -- A quote...."The Nation's Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater chief Eric Prince's deep troubles".

A Media Blackout in Honduras
Video - A quote...."By: GRITtv Wednesday August 5, 2009 9:00 am -- News from Honduras has been in short supply even though the standoff between ousted leader Manuel Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti continues. July 30 marked one of the bloodiest days since the military coup and efforts to achieve some kind of power sharing agreement between the two parties and ensure Zelaya’s return have failed. So what’s happening on the ground? And why aren’t we hearing about it? "

Iran/Russia - a deadly embrace
Videos - All three videos, part one was posted 08-04-09 - mpg -- A quote from part two...."After 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, the Chinese leadership was more than ready to counteract the US advancement in Eurasia - and turn it on its head. In the second part of this report, Pepe Escobar analyzes what's at stake at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and what really matters for emerging global power China and regional power Iran: the Asian Energy Security Grid and the re-emergence of the fabled Silk Road, now as a vehicle for energy security as well as trade."

Shackles and Chains: America Leads the World Again
A quote...."We have often talked here about the American gulag -- not the far-flung prisons and "intense interrogation" chambers of the global militarist empire, where tens of thousands of captives languish, often without the slightest pretense of even a modicum of rights or legal process -- but the countless human holding pens that glut the highways and byways of the sacred Homeland itself, where not thousands but literally millions of people are incarcerated in a brutal system of retribution, abuse and moral atrocity: a system increasingly geared to corporate profit; a seedbed and training ground for gangs and extremists; a breaker and stigmatizer of generation after generation of Americans. -- Yes, once again, the latest annual rankings of the world's prison population are in, and, once again, 2008 found the good old US of A the winners by a country mile. No other nation in the world comes close to imprisoning more of its own people -- not in terms of raw numbers or by proportion of the population." -- also posted at AftrDwngSt  & Uruknet & TheWildRep

Joe Bageant: A Yard Sale in Chernoybl
A quote...."And all those hushed and not so hushed shopper cell phone conversations, this one consoling someone at the home base pod: -- ‘Oh I am so sorry, baby, but I think they’ve quit making the Ranch flavored Pringles. Yes I know you don’t like the jalapeno Pringles. I am so sorry. Really I am.’ Both parties seemed genuinely distraught. -- And I imagine Allen Ginsberg in this supermarket, as he once imagined Walt Whitman in a supermarket in California and wonder, as Allen wondered, ‘What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate their brains and imaginations?’ -- The meat department workers in blood stained white smocks recite their corporate programmed litany: ‘Welcome to Food Lion. How can I best serve you today?’ I cannot help but politicize such moments, so I say, ‘Humiliating, isn’t it, to say that a thousand times a day to people who just want to be left alone to shop.’ Once in a while I get a knowing glance back, but usually they do not respond, because cameras cover every inch of the place."

Dr. Michael Hudson "This is Not a Free Market" - Alt - (YuTb - 10min 3sec - 07/23/09)
Video - A quote...."The Renegade Economist goes to New York to hear Dr. Michael Hudson's views on the state of the US Economy." -- Pay close attention when Dr. Hudson describes how the Fed holds other countries in bondage, charging them high interest rates while paying them zilch. - mpg

The Real Economy Versus the Make-Believe World of the Govmt and Financial Giants
A quote.... "In the real economy, unemployment is at Depression-era levels (see this, this and this). -- In the real economy, bank loan loss rates will be higher than the Depression. -- In the real economy, government revenue is at its lowest level since the Depression, and most states are on the verge of bankruptcy. -- In the real economy, the world economy is crashing faster than during the Depression (and see this). -- But in the make-believe world of the government and the financial giants, the recession is over. -- How do they do it?" -- also posted at GlobRsrch

A Tale of Two Depressions
Charts - (Link from the article shown above) -- A quote...."This is an update of the authors' 6 April 2009 column comparing today's global crisis to the Great Depression. World industrial production, trade, and stock markets are diving faster now than during 1929-30. Fortunately, the policy response to date is much better. The update shows that trade and stock markets have shown some improvement without reversing the overall conclusion -- today's crisis is at least as bad as the Great Depression."

Mr. Panetta Needs a History Lesson
Full Quote..."CIA director Leon Panetta implied Sunday that the "reality of 9/11" excused the unconstitutional and criminal acts of the Bush administration: -- The country was frightened, and political leaders were trying to respond as best they could. Judgments were made. Some of them were wrong. --  Panetta makes it sound like all of the illegal decisions were made after 9/11, in response to that horrific event."

But as I've previously pointed out:

• The government's spying on Americans began before 9/11 (confirmed here and here)
• The Patriot Act was written before 9/11
• The Afghanistan war was planned before 9/11
• The decision to launch the Iraq war was made before 9/11
• The decision to launch a war against Iran was made before 9/11
• Cheney advocated strengthening the powers of the White House to the point of monarchy before 9/11
  

In addition, while the decision to torture appears to have been made after 9/11, it appears to have been made for the purpose of creating a false linkage between Iraq and 9/11 in order to justify the Iraq war. In other words, the post-9/11 decision to torture appears to have been made to rationalize the pre-9/11 decision to invade Iraq. --- Moreover, it was known long before 9/11 that torture doesn't work to produce accurate intelligence.

More proof of WTC 7 lie - Alt - (YouTube - 2 min 22 sec - August 03, 2009)
Video - Great video - mpg - A quote...."A couple clips showing how a building responds when only SOME of its supporting structure is compromised." -- For more on this issue see....9/11 - WTC7

Scott Horton Interviews Jeremy Scahill
Audio Interview - A quote...."Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, discusses the dwindling ranks of antiwar Democrats in Congress, the “cruise missile” liberals that support war in Darfur without questioning the aims of U.S. imperialism, the mercenary surge accompanying the troop surge in Afghanistan, the history of bipartisan executive assassination programs and the “birther” conspiracy theories that completely miss the point." -- MP3 here. (36min:45sec)

Bowing to US's 'naked political power'
A quote...."Suppressing evidence of torture, as the US is asking Britain to do in the Binyam Mohamed case, is a criminal offence." -- also posted at ICH

Skip the Happy Talk -- This Depression is just beginning
An absolute must read. - mpg -- A quote...."August 03, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- Too bad Pulitzers aren't handed out for blog-entries. This year's award would go to Zero Hedge for its "The 'Money on the Sidelines' Fallacy" post. This short entry shows why the economy will continue its downward slide and why the US consumer will not get off the mat and resume spending as he has in the past. The fact is the Net Wealth of US Households has "declined from a peak of $22 trillion to just under $12 trillion in early March." -- Ouch! -- The problem is compounded by the fact that Total US Household debt, as of first quarter 2009, amounts to roughly $13 trillion, and has stayed within that range for the last 3 and a half years." -- also posted at DProgram

Feds Hit With Biggest Tax Revenue Drop Since 1932
A quote....The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion. -- Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore the recession's impact: Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever. -- The last time the government's revenues were this bleak, the year was 1932 in the midst of the Depression."

Geithner Won’t Rule Out New Taxes for Middle Class
A quote...."To get the economy back on track, will President Barack Obama have to break his pledge not to raise taxes on 95 percent of Americans? In a “This Week” exclusive, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told me, "We’re going to have to do what’s necessary.” -- Geithner was clear that he believes a key component of economic recovery is deficit reduction. When I gave him several opportunities to rule out a middle class tax hike, he wouldn’t do it." -- So the "brilliant boy" gives tens of trillions of dollars to his rich Bankster friends and we'll be forced to pick up the tab!  You Obamatrolls happy yet? - mpg

GRITtv: Interview with Chris Hedges (1/2) -- Interview with Chris Hedges (2/2)
Absolute Must View Videos - mpg -- A quote...."Grit TV with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. -- Watch any show, at any time: http://grittv.org
-- Regarding "Corporatisim" and "Social Therapy" see.....Happiness Consultants Won’t Stop a Depression

Factional struggles deepen within Iranian ruling elites
A quote...."Nearly two months after Iran’s presidential elections, the factional rivalry within the Islamic Republic’s ruling elites that erupted over the disputed results has become more bitter and entrenched."

Iran: Which side are you on -- continued…
A quote...."....although some on the left are supporting Ahmadinejad, this is not the be all and end all of the debate. I for one, see the situation as more complex than either supporting or opposing Ahmadinejad, after all the ‘official opposition’ led by Musavi is exploiting the situation every bit as much as Ahmadinejad is, tapping into the discontent felt by many, especially the secular (Westernized?) strand of Iranian society. And it would be foolish let alone naive to assume that Western support for Musavi is predicated on the West’s desire for democracy to break out in Iran." -- For more on this issue see....Iran, Just RELAX!! – Of Course It Was A US-NRE PSYOP! - 06-26-09 - mpg & It's The Votes That Count - 06-28-09 - mpg

Bombshell: Bin Laden Worked for US Till 9/11
A quote...."July 31, 2009 "Daily Kos" --  Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds dropped a bombshell on the Mike Malloy radio show, guest-hosted by Brad Friedman (audio, partial transcript). -- In the interview, Sibel says that the US maintained 'intimate relations' with Bin Laden, and the Taliban, "all the way until that day of September 11." -- These 'intimate relations' included using Bin Laden for 'operations' in Central Asia, including Xinjiang, China. These 'operations' involved using al Qaeda and the Taliban in the same manner "as we did during the Afghan and Soviet conflict," that is, fighting 'enemies' via proxies." -- also posted at ICH

Former FBI Translator: Bin Laden Worked for U.S. Right Up Until 9/11
More on the article shown above -- A quote...."Before you hear what she has to say, you should know a little about Sibel Edmonds' background. -- Edmonds is a former FBI translator, who the Department of Justice's Inspector General and several senators have called extremely credible (free subscription required). -- Some of Edmonds allegations' have been confirmed in the British press. -- Now, Edmonds is saying that Osama Bin Laden worked for the U.S. right up until 9/11, and that that fact is being covered up because the US outsourced terror operations to al Qaeda and the Taliban for many years. --  Is there are confirmation of Edmonds' claim? -- Yes." -- For more on this sort of issue  see....9/11 - NORAD & 9/11 - WTC7 & 9/11 - Commission & 9/11 - Punish or Reward & 9/11 - WTC-1&2 & 9/11 - Planning Guidance & 9/11 - Iraq - Torture Fables

Pakistan gives US, NATO allies proof of Indias covert links with Baitullah Mehsud
A quote...."By WANA/ISLAMABAD, Jul 29, 2009 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- Higher Pakistani political and military authorities have handed over substantial evidence to its allies US and NATO regarding Indias involvement in aiding Bait Ullah Mehsud. Well informed Sources told reporter that Pakistani political and military leadership have provided documented and video tape evidence to Special US representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke and ISAF chief Lt Gen Mc Chrystal of Indias covert links with Baitullah Mehsud and provision of aid to him through Indian consulate in Afghanistan."

Facts vs. Beliefs – Today’s Ancient Warfare
A quote...."In unconventional warfare, beliefs are deployed as weapons by those waging war by way of deception. Does anyone recall Iraqi weapons of mass destruction? Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda? Iraq’s biological weapons laboratories? The Iraqi meetings in Prague with Al Qaeda? Iraq’s purchases of yellowcake uranium from Niger?" -- For more on this sort of issue see....US Fake Intel / Propaganda

Symbol for Sale: Obama Cashes Cronies' Chips
A quote...."The only difference, the only real change, that Barack Obama brings to the White House is the color of his skin. As I've said before, this racial factor does have symbolic significance (see below); but in substance, there is no real difference between Obama and any of the other run-of-the-mill greasy pole-climbers seeking temporary management of the imperial machinery, with all of the fleeting power -- and lifelong perks -- that comes with it."

Scott Horton Interviews Pepe Escobar
Audio Interview - A quote...."Pepe Escobar, writer for the Asia Times, discusses the Pentagon’s “arc of instability” that follows the same path as a potential Western-dominated oil pipeline, how U.S. aggression abroad has united Russia, China and Iran, the internal economic-fueled strife in China and Joe Biden’s wacky rant against Russia." -- [MP3 here. (21min:59sec)]

Iran, China and the New Silk Road
Related Article -- A quote...."HONG KONG - Does it make sense to talk about a Beijing-Tehran axis? Apparently no, when one learns that Iran's application to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was flatly denied at the 2008 summit in Tajikistan. -- Apparently yes, when one sees how the military dictatorship of the mullahtariat in Tehran and the collective leadership in Beijing have dealt with their recent turmoil - the "green revolution" in Tehran and the Uighur riots in Urumqi - reawakening in the West the ghostly mythology of "Asian despotism". -- Part 1:  Iran and Russia, scorpions in a bottle 

Iran: Riding the "Green Wave" at the Campaign for Peace and Democracy and Beyond - Part 1 - A quote...."There are many problems with the Campaign for Peace and Democracy's "Question & Answer on the Iran Crisis," issued by the CPD on July 7 (http://www.cpdweb.org/news/20090707.shtml), and widely circulated since then. -- The CPD adopted this format, it tells us, because "some on the left, and others as well, have questioned the legitimacy of and the need for solidarity with the anti-Ahmadinejad movement," and the CPD believes "those questions need to be squarely addressed." -- also posted at ICH

Iran: Whose side are you on?
A quote...."I have been reading, with much despair and a deal of consternation, the torrent of ‘analysis’ coming out of ‘left’ field about which, if any, side to support in the ongoing struggles in Iran and, at the end of the day, a good deal more is revealed about the ‘left’ in the West than the situation in Iran."

Origins of the American Empire: Revolution, World Wars and World Order - Part II
Glob Power and Glob Govmt: Evolution and Revolution of the Cent Banking System Part I
A quote...."Humanity is on the verge of entering into the most tumultuous period in our history. The prospects of a global depression, the likes of which have never been seen before; a truly global war, on a scale never before imagined; and societal collapse, for which nations of the world are building totalitarian police states to control populations; are increasing by the day. The major global trend forecasters are sounding the alarms on economic depression, war, a return to fascism and a total reorganization of society.   Through crisis, we are seeing the reorganization of the global political economy, and the transformation of capitalism into a totalitarian capitalist world government. Capitalism has never stayed the same through its history; it has always changed and will continue to do so. Its changes are explained and analyzed through political-economic theory, both mainstream theory and critical. The changes are undertaken over years, decades and centuries. The next phase of capitalism is one in which the world moves to a state-controlled economic system, much like China, of totalitarian capitalism."

Hear Dahr Jamail on Alex Jones Radio Show, 24 Jul 2009
Audio Interview - A quote...."Hear Dahr Jamail on Alex Jones Radio Show, 24 Jul 2009" - Regarding the massive casualties in Iraq, the US-NRE's incitement of sectarian violence and Jamail's new book "The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan":[ GlglBkSrch] - mpg -- For more on this issue see....US Fake Intel / Propaganda - Iraq Deaths & US Sponsored Civil Wars - Iraq

1. Part 1 mp3 3.3 MB
2. Part 2 mp3 1.4 MB
3. Part 3 mp3 3.0 MB

The Story of A Place Called Mouseland - Alt - (YouTube - 6 min 38 sec - May 05, 2006)
Video - A quote...."Tommy Douglas and a vision for Saskatchewan"

An American Hell - Yes, Mr. Reficul is probably very pleased right now. - mpg
A quote...."We've just passed through the CIA assassination flap, already fading from the news after less than two weeks of media attention. Broken in several major newspapers, here's how the story goes: the Agency, evidently under Vice President Dick Cheney's orders, didn't inform Congress that, to assassinate al-Qaeda leaders, it was trying to develop and deploy global death squads. (Of course, just about no one is going to call them that, but the description fits.) Congress is now in high dudgeon. The CIA didn't keep that body's "Gang of Eight" informed. A House investigation is now underway." -- also posted at CommonDreams

"A Damned Murder Inc."
A quote...."Some time in early or mid-1949 a CIA officer named Bill (his surname is blacked out in the file, which was surfaced by John Kelly in the early 1990s) asked an outside contractor for input on how to kill people. Requirements included the appearance of an accidental or purely fortuitous terminal experience suffered by the Agency’s victim. -- Bill’s  friend – internal evidence suggests he was a doctor – offered practical advice: “Tetraethyl lead, as you know, could be dropped on the skin in very small quantities, producing no local lesion, and after a quick death, no specific evidence would be present.”   Another possibility was “the exposure of the entire individual to X-ray.”

The Case of the Mystery Voters in Iran’s Election
A quote...."One claim made by the opposition in Iran to the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an attempt to paint the election as fraudulent is that there was an unusually high turnout, in some cases more than 100 percent, in many places across the country." -- also posted at AtheoNews

New Great Game Revisited, Part 1 - Iran and Russia, Scorpions in a Bottle
A quote...."A nuclear Iran would inevitably turbo-charge a new, emerging multipolar world - one that does not rely on the United States to subjugate the bulk of oil in the Arab Middle East. But the Iranian nuclear dossier cannot be solved without Russia, leaving Moscow with a key moderating role between Iran and the West. No matter how nasty the overtones, the Iran-Russia dynamic is the pacemaker for the heart of the New Great Game." -- also posted at WarInIraq

The Hidden History of 9-11
Audio Interview -- A quote...."How much insider trading occurred in the days leading up to 9/11? How compromised is the evidence against alleged hijackers because of serious authentication problems with a key Dulles Airport videotape? To what extent does the testimony of more than five hundred firefighters differ from official reports of what happened at the World Trade Center buildings that day? How inseparably connected are Western covert operations to al-Qaeda? How is Islamophobia used to sustain US imperialism?" -- For more on this issue see....


Goldman Sachs Is Criminal Scum / Max Keiser
Must read memo. The video was previously posted (but it's really good, so see it again) - mpg -- A quote...."For your information, the federal government has devoted $4.7 trillion [actual payouts] to help the financial sector through its crisis, a watchdog report said Monday. Under the worst of circumstances, the report said, the government's maximum exposure could total nearly $24 trillion, or $80,000 for every American. -- And who made a financial killing during this meltdown ~ Goldman Sachs."

Why Is Ralph Peters So Angry?
A quote...."Ralph is a retired Army intelligence officer, and the author of a long series of books and articles. His novels are formulaic adventures, his non-fiction at times interesting and thought-provoking. Peters has assessed the state of the American empire accurately in some ways, although he seems to be childishly in love with it, on the side of the great US-centric, Amero-dominant world planners, Friedmanite flat-earthers, neoconservative American globalists and adherents of Thomas P.M. Barnett’s phantasmagoric Pentagon "new map." To hear how these folks perceive goodness and structure in the world, listen to Barnett last year celebrating Clinton’s Balkan adventurism as wonderful and successful because it created new US dependent states who "are now contributing more NATO troops to Afghanistan than the rest of NATO combined." Barnett calls this "exporting security."

Color Revolutions: Bulgaria vs Ukraine: Don't blink
A quote...."Obama's geopolitical demarche in Russia's backyard is moving ahead nicely...  First there was the election in Bulgaria 5 July which brought a new party to power -- Boyko Borisov's Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria. Borisov, or Batman, as he is affectionately called, was a Communist-era policeman who subsequently established a prosperous private security business and has been the mayor of Sofia since 2005. He campaigned on the usual -- to fight corruption and secure a better economic future. The Batman bragged in an interview with Der Spiegel of receiving "letters of accolade" from the CIA and FBI, presumably for his battle with the dark forces. One of the first things he did as PM, however, was to suspend the existing energy contracts with Moscow, both the South Stream and a nuclear power plant project." -- also posted at Creative-i

The Technique of a Coup d'État
Related Article - A quote...."This constantly repeated myth of popular rebellion against a dictatorial government is popular on both the Left and the Right of the political spectrum. Previously, the myth of revolution was obviously the preserve of the Left. But when the violent putsch occurred in Kygyrzstan, The Times enthused about how the scenes in Bishkek reminded him of Eisenstein films about the Bolshevik revolution, The Daily Telegraph extolled the "power to the people," and the Financial Times used a well-known Maoist metaphor when it praised Kyrgyzstan’s "long march to freedom."

The Case of the ‘Fatwa’ to Rig Iran’s Election
Related Article - A quote...."The propaganda campaign to paint the victory of the incumbent candidate in Iran’s June presidential election as having been a stolen one began early. Even before the election, the seed was being planted that the election would be stolen to give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a win. This narrative played nicely into the hands of the reformist opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who cried foul following the favorable results for the incumbent. But what evidence is there to support this narrative?" -- also posted at ICH & AtheoNews

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Freedom Rider: American War Criminals
A quote...."McNamara was part of a very small, rarified group. They are the people who answer to presidents and prime ministers and princes. They are admired and lionized, even when they do great harm to humanity. Regardless of the awful consequences of their actions, they are called brilliant, the “best and the brightest.” -- The McNamaras of the world are all criminals, mass killers. Yet because they kill on behalf of the state, they are punished only if they are unfortunate enough to be on the losing side. McNamara said so himself. His first brush with mass murder occurred during World War II when he served as an analyst under the tutelage of General Curtis LeMay."

In an Impotent World Even the Bankrupt Can Prevail - Threatening Iran
A quote...."When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Japan did not spend years preparing her public case and demonstrating her deployment of forces for the attack.  Japan did not make a world issue out of her view that the US was denying Japan her role in the Pacific by hindering Japan’s access to raw materials and energy. -- Similarly, when Hitler attacked Russia, he did not preface his invasion with endless threats and a public case that blamed the war on England. -- These events happened before the PSYOPS era.  Today, America and Israel’s wars of aggression are preceded by years of propaganda and international meetings, so that by the time the attack comes it is an expected event, not a monstrous surprise attack with its connotation of naked aggression." -- also posted at ICH

Back to Iraq? - -Don't look now, but…
A quote...."Was withdrawal from Iraq just another campaign promise, made to be broken – like Obama’s pledges on government secrecy and other civil liberties issues? The president’s record, so far, does not bode well for an answer in the negative. -- This administration of self-proclaimed "pragmatists" has no problem dispensing with principles and promises when it’s convenient. And it is decidedly inconvenient to be getting out of Iraq at the very moment we are ratcheting up pressure on our new adversary in the region: Iran."

Fading Into Mist...
Quote of the Day...."If you keep on excusing, you eventually give your blessing to the slave camp, to cowardly force, to organized executioners, to the cynicism of great political monsters; you finally hand over your brothers  -- *Albert Camus*  -- There is no subject more restricted nor more controlled in the United States than a critical discussion of Israel. Balanced argument is ignored while each word is parsed -- and condemned. It's strange that we are free to rant and rave and point out the war crimes of our own administration -- of all other administrations throughout the world -- but not those of Israel. The few who dare to question the damage Israel has wrought throughout the Middle East for decades are immediately labeled "anti-Semitic," and are in danger of losing their friends, jobs, their reputations and, if they persist, their country -- for America has zero tolerance for those who recognize Israel's brutality."

Russia’s Sickness: ’Anti-Americanism’
A quote...."This is the road show whereupon Obama flies into a foreign country and makes a pretty speech that all two of our allowed political viewpoints will pretend to bicker over and then he flies home and US policy continues on the same as before… as this news story from the other day makes clear.  So much for that "reset button." -- Americans, especially liberals, line up for tickets to the Obama road show.  The lines are around the block. -- Outside of cocoon America, however, sales are dead."

The Sinister Purpose Behind Bush Administration Lawlessness
A quote...."What could be worse than killing U.S. service people and innocent Iraqis?  The unitary theory of the executive, that’s what. -- Dick Cheney came into office believing that executive power had been excessively eroded during the Vietnam and Watergate years.  Few reputable scholars believe this nonsense.  Most presidential scholars have concluded that the executive branch has grown in power vis-à-vis the other governmental branches since the turn of the 20th century, but really got boosted to an "imperial presidency" during the Cold War from the Truman presidency onward.  This development is a far cry from the legislative-dominated system that the nation’s founders and the Constitution envisioned.  The slight rollback of executive power during Vietnam and Watergate was only a momentary pause as the executive juggernaut rolled forth up to the Bush administration."

The Makings of a Police State-Part I - The National Security Generation
A quote...."When an opponent declares, 'I will not come over to your side,' I say calmly, 'Your child belongs to us already...What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing but this new community'." -- *Adolf Hitler*

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The First "Red War Warning" in a Year - 07-18-09 - mpg

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Max Keiser: Goldman Sachs Are “Scum,” & “Financial Terrorists”
Video - (Max Keiser totally RIPS Goldman Sachs! -- And he even mentions WTC7....yeah!! -- OK, he might have gone over the top a bit with one tasteless [but probably accurate] reference, but it was a true joy to watch him in action - mpg) -- A quote...."Max Keiser goes on the offensive during an appearance on France 24 as he slams Goldman Sachs as “scum” and “financial terrorists” who should be thrown in jail. Keiser’s adversary meanwhile argues that the same criminals should be handed more power to create a system of “global governance” and a new international reserve currency."

The Real Price of Goldman’s Giganto-Profits
A quote...."So what's wrong with Goldman posting $3.44 billion in second-quarter profits, what's wrong with the company so far earmarking $11.4 billion in compensation for its employees? What's wrong is that this is not free-market earnings but an almost pure state subsidy."

July 16, 2009: Pyramid Economy - Jon Stewart
Video -- A quote...."Goldman Sachs remains the eye of the U.S. economic pyramid, thanks to the government-funded scaffolding."

"Watch What We Do, Not What We Say"
A quote...."Watch what we do, not what we say,” was the famous advice Nixon’s first Attorney General, John Mitchell, gave the press at the onset of the Nixon presidency in 1969.  It’s  a handy piece of advice in the Age of Obama too, as we  roll towards the end of his first six months in office.  There’s the added difficulty that Obama likes to say two different things in the same speech, usually prefaced by his trade-mark “Let me be clear.”

Obama's Medicine Show - The Placebo President
A quote...."Barack Obama entered DC, riding a hope train. Spirits soared all over the globe. Supporters were high with the drug of anticipation, an injection to heal a sick country. Almost immediately after taking the oath, Obama began to reject his promises. -- Clearly, the Obama cure is just a placebo. "

10 lessons on empire
A quote...."As I mentioned awhile back, I devoted a good chunk of my vacation out west reading Piers Brendon's The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997. As you might imagine, I spent a lot of time thinking about possible parallels and lessons for America's current global position, just as English imperialists spent a lot of time pondering the Roman experience (ably documented by Edward Gibbon). -- In a tapestry this rich and varied, it is easy to read into it just about any "lesson" one wants to draw. With that caveat in mind, here are the top ten lessons on empire that I drew from Brendon's book. Even if you don't agree with them, you should still read the book."

Best Intentions: An Appreciation of Graham Greene
A quote...."In Washington, where the honorific “historic” ornaments every speech, appointment, conclave, and legislative initiative however trivial, those who earn their living purporting to explain “what it all means” have a limitless supply of material. Small wonder that the senatorial defection of an unprincipled hack from one party to the other qualifies as Big News, while the nomination of an associate justice to a seat on the Supreme Court becomes equivalent in significance to the Normandy invasion. -- To suggest that this rampant narcissism induces a distorted, not to say warped, view of reality is to understate the case. Rebutting this presumption of Washington’s supreme importance requires a constant effort."

The Nation promotes Iran’s “Green Wave” Once again: Iran, imperialism and the “left”
A quote...."The June 12 Iranian election has become the occasion for virtually the entire milieu of “progressive” and “left” organizations in the US and internationally to line up behind their own governments in support of the opposition movement headed by the defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi. -- These groups have not only uncritically embraced Moussavi’s claims that the election was stolen, they have ignored the right-wing economic and foreign policies of the opposition, the bourgeois character of its leadership, and the fact that its main social base consists of better-off sections of the middle class. That the mass of Iranian workers abstained from the protests that followed the election, and that imperialist governments in the US and Europe have uniformly rallied behind the opposition, evokes no second thoughts about the Moussavi movement’s supposedly democratic and progressive character."

Alternative news?
Related Article - A quote...."The performance of both corporate and independent media reporting the Iranian election should provoke apprehension among news consumers. When conservative Fox, liberal PBS, and radical Pacifica all refer to the Iranian president as “hard line,” and uncritically assume a stolen election, news is not being reported. A party line is being toed." -- For more on this issue see....Iran, Just RELAX!! – Of Course It Was A US-NRE PSYOP! - 06-26-09 - mpg & It's The Votes That Count - 06-28-09 - mpg

JFK, Martin Luther King Jr., & Ron Paul Speak Truth to Power
Video - This is essentially a political ad for Ron Paul, but it's outstanding - mpg - A quote...."EDIT: YouTube removed this video along with all my other videos, they also terminated my account without even letting me know.  This clip was getting much attention prior to this happening.  I have yet to receive an explanation but I’ve sent about 15 e-mails asking for one.  I have made numerous accounts and uploaded the clip again.  Please download this clip from: http://xs.2lhi.is/~oskar05/ronpaul.wmv and upload it to a new YouTube account."

The Mega-Lie Called the "War on Terror": A Masterpiece of Propaganda
From the History File -- September 27, 2007 -- Quote of the Day...."If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the state can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie ... The truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the state."  -- *Joseph Goebbels*, minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945"

“Obama has the right to lock any US citizen up forever without trial”
Video - A quote...."Barack Obama’s indefinite detention claim, coupled with the enemy combatant right he inherited, enables him to lock up any US citizen forever without a trial, author and political consultant Naomi Wolf told RT." -- For more on this issue see....One Real Solution for Democracy - 11-04-06 - mpg & US - Torture & Sex Perv.

Is Military Service Honorable?
A quote...."When the GIs left Asia in ’73, the commie peaceniks thought they had won. And they had, for ten minutes. The grip of the military on the country loosened briefly. -- Unfortunately the soldiers learned. Not how to win wars, which they do poorly if at all, but how to keep a war going. Winning a war isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The promotions and contracts stop. When you are paid to do something, it is in your interest not to finish doing it. -- The Pentagon’s first lesson learned was to avoid conscription, as the conscripted and their families will take to the streets. By using an army of volunteer suckers about whom nobody of importance cares, the military severs its wars from most of the country, which loses interest. The brass are then free to do as they choose. -- The second lesson learned was that while defeating the enemy is not necessary, and perhaps not desirable, controlling the press is everything. And they did it."

Obama’s Rollback Strategy -- Honduras, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan (and the Boomerang Effect) -- A quote...."July 09, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- The recent events in Honduras and Iran, which pit democratically elected regimes against pro-US military and civilian actors intent on overthrowing them can best be understood as part of a larger White House strategy designed to rollback the gains achieved by opposition government and movements during the Bush years. -- In a manner reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s New Cold War policies, Obama has vastly increased the military budget, increased the number of combat troops, targeted new regions for military intervention and backed military coups in regions traditionally controlled by the US . However Obama’s rollback strategy occurs in a very different international and domestic context. Unlike Reagan, Obama faces a prolonged and profound recession/depression, massive fiscal and trade deficits, a declining role in the world economy and loss of political dominance in Latin America, the Middle East, East Asia and elsewhere. While Reagan faced off against a decaying Soviet Communist regime, Obama confronts surging world-wide opposition from a variety of independent secular, clerical, nationalist, liberal democratic and socialist electoral regimes and social movements anchored in local struggles." -- also posted at GlobRsrch & AtheoNews

Tehran and Tegucigalpa: A tale of two capitals
A quote...."In Tehran, demonstrations called by the defeated US-backed presidential candidate are given non-stop, wall-to-wall coverage by the American media. The charges of former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi of a stolen election and a “coup d’etat” are embraced uncritically and reported as fact by the New York Times, the Washington Post and other “authoritative” newspapers, without any independent investigation or substantiation. A media propaganda campaign ensues aimed at isolating and destabilizing the ruling faction in Iran headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." -- also posted at ICH

Mourn On The 4th of July
A quote...."History without memory," declared Time magazine at the end of the 20th century, "confines Americans to a sort of eternal present. They are especially weak in remembering what they did to other people, as opposed to what they did for them." Ironically, it was Henry Luce, founder of Time, who in 1941 divined the "American century" as an American social, political and cultural "victory" over humanity and the right "to exert upon the world the full impact of our influence, for such purposes as we see fit and by such means as we see fit". -- also posted at CommonDreams

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard Demands Accountability on Torture
Alt - (YouTube - 5 min 13 sec - July 09, 2009)
Video - A quote...."On Thursday, June 25, 2009, a spirited rally was held in John Marshall Park, in Washington, D.C. Its purpose: To demand that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder appoint a “Special Prosecutor for Torture,” who will hold accountable to the supremacy of the Law, certain members of the Bush-Cheney Gang, including ex-President George W. Bush, Jr. and his Vice-President, Dick Cheney." -- For more on this issue see....9/11 - Iraq - Torture Fables

Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order
Video Interview - A quote...."William Engdahl on his book Full Spectrum Dominance:"

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Welcome to the New Un-Holy Roman Empire - 07-08-09 - mpg

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Obama Takes Bush’s Plutocratic-Socialism to the Next Level
A quote...."It has been noted by observers of both Left and Right that the Obama administration has adopted nearly exact duplications of the Bush administration’s authoritarian policies in a multitude of areas, both foreign and domestic. And now it appears that Obama and the Democrats are only going to accelerate the economic plutocratic-socialism which became a problem during the Clinton administration, increased exponentially in the Bush years, and is poised to consume the entire country and its economy under the Obama presidency." -- also posted at ICH

The Big Whorehouse On The Potomac
A quote...."July 03, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- -As Americans celebrate July 4th, they can contemplate that the union of “free and independent states,” like the former British colonial power, has evolved into its final manifestation--a complete whore house. While Members of Parliament in London charge their expense accounts with every personal expenditure, including the rental of adult xxx-rated films, an American newspaper put the reporting of public policy out to bids until politico.com blew the whistle. -- In Washington, everything is for sale, including journalistic integrity. The Washington Post, which abandoned investigative reporting eons ago, decided to boost its sagging revenues by spreading her legs. The Post’s business division put out a flyer offering lobbyists access at the Post’s CEO’s gracious home to “those powerful few” in the Obama administration, Congress, and among the Post’s editors and reporters who decide the nation’s policies, such as health care. -- The Washington Post’s flyer offered a Wal-Mart low cost of a mere $25,000 for one “salon” to interact with decision makers and $250,000 for eleven interactions. "

Western Media Persists in Propaganda About Iraq's Purported WMD
Related Article - A quote...."The mainstream media is reporting that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein told his FBI interrogators after his capture that he lied about having weapons of mass destruction (WMD) because he feared Iran. But there’s just one problem with this claim: Saddam Hussein never claimed to have WMD, but , as everybody knows, repeatedly denied that this was so."

How to Deal with America's Empire of Bases - A Modest Proposal for Garrisoned Lands
A quote...."The U.S. Empire of Bases -- at $102 billion a year already the world's costliest military enterprise -- just got a good deal more expensive. As a start, on May 27th, we learned that the State Department will build a new "embassy" in Islamabad, Pakistan, which at $736 million will be the second priciest ever constructed, only $4 million less, if cost overruns don't occur, than the Vatican-City-sized one the Bush administration put up in Baghdad. The State Department was also reportedly planning to buy the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel (complete with pool) in Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan, to use as a consulate and living quarters for its staff there." -- also posted at ICH

The Base Court: Another Fortress Rising in America's Ring of Iron
Chris Floyd's take on the article shown above. - mpg -- A quote...."While Chalmers is undoubtedly one of the wise men of our day, I am not so sure about this final point. Oh, it's true that the empire of bases is further bankrupting our already bankrupt country. And it's an indisputable fact that the fever-dream of dominance and militarism has already spelled the end of the United States as we knew it (or as we once perceived and hoped it to be). Yet it is hard for me to believe that if push really comes to shove for our imperial managers, they will simply stand by and watch their power and privilege melt away with nothing more than a wistful sigh for passing glories. Especially with a unfathomably vast military arsenal -- including thousands of nation-devouring nuclear weapons -- at their command."

The Banality of Evil Applies to Everyone
A quote...."One of the aspects of the Iraq War that has fascinated me the most is how CIA agents and U.S. soldiers could actually bring themselves to kill, torture, and sexually abuse Iraqis. After all, don’t forget that neither the Iraqi people nor their government participated in the 9/11 attacks. The worst “crime” that any Iraqi committed against any American was resisting an unlawful invasion of his country. -- Nonetheless, even though the Iraqi people were innocent of any attacks on the United States, many CIA agents and most U.S. soldiers have been able to bring themselves to kill and maim hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in an invasion and occupation of a country that never attacked the United States, and murder, torture, and sexually abuse dozens of Iraqis detainees and prisoners."

Iraq a failed imperialist venture
A quote...."Not only did the Iraqi invasion and occupation prove the limits of military power, it also exposed how incapable America has become at nation-building. Its postwar incompetence was stunning. -- America plunged Iraq into chaos, shattered the infrastructure and destroyed the society, reducing human beings to their basest instincts. They turned on each other and found safety only in family, tribe, clan and sect. Shiites and Sunnis, who had lived together for ages, ethnically cleansed each other's neighbourhoods, which to this day remain separated by barricades, walls and checkpoints. -- Having unleashed the forces that put Iraq's three main communities at war with each other, the U.S. toyed with the idea of dividing the country into the Kurdish north, a Sunni centre and a Shiite south, much like the British had divided India in two in 1947. -- Having created the chaos, violence and jihadism, the U.S. said, in colonial fashion, it had to stay to curb the chaos, violence and jihadism. Having crippled the state, it had no choice but to prolong the occupation until the natives were ready to govern themselves." -- also posted at ICH

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The Great American Bubble Machine
A quote...."The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. -- Any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy." -- For more on this sort of issue see the two articles shown below....

Michael Hudson's "Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire"
Article #1 -- Book Review -- A quote...."First written in 1972, it was updated in a 2003 edition that's every bit as relevant now - thus this review focusing on Hudson's new preface, introduction, and detailed account of the book's theme. -- He revisited it in his 2008-09 Project Censored award- winning article titled: "Economic Meltdown - The 'Dollar Glut' is What Finances America's Global Military Build-up" in which he explains the following - the "inter-related dynamics" of:

• "surplus (US) dollars pouring into the rest of the world for yet further financial speculation and corporate takeovers;"
• global central banks "recyl(ing) these dollar inflows (into) US Treasury bonds to finance the federal US budget deficit; and most important (but most suppressed in the US media),"
• "the military character of the US payments deficit and the domestic federal budget deficit."

In other words, the global "dollar glut" finances US corporate takeovers, speculative excesses creating bubbles and global economic crises, America's reckless spending, foreign wars, hundreds of bases worldwide, "military build-up," and culture of militarism and belligerence overall at the expense of democratic freedoms, beneficial social change, and human and civil rights." -- For more on this issue see....Some Tentative Laws - 07-20-08 - mpg

Market Predictions from the Foundation for the Study of Cycles
Article #2 -- A quote...."The Foundation for the Study of Cycles was formed during the Great Depression to try to figure out why it happened. It was staffed and funded by leading intellectuals and business men of the day." -- For more on this issue see....Effective Fed Funds Rate & Total Non-Farm Payrolls 03-24-07

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America's Praetorian Guard Is Slowly Crumbling
A quote...."Professional armies have traditionally been far more disciplined, especially under the stress of longer-run warfare. -- BUT that does not mean they have no turning points or breaking points. In Rome the professional, imperial guard, The Praetorian Guard, was highly disciplined and bore casualties well in the early years. But over the decades of imperial struggles and military in-breeding common to such armies largely cut off from the civil population, they became bored with routine, self-centered, arrogant, puffed up with their own importance, and started deposing and imposing emperors, forcing them to put more and more of the national wealth into the military and so on. The professional military became a tyrannical force no civilians could control, so it controlled them through their imposed emperors."

Iran and Washington's Hidden Hand - Has the CIA Been Caught in Iran's Cookie Jar, Again?  -- A quote...."Only weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks, Charles Krauthammer, the Washington Post columnist and mouthpiece of the neoconservatives, revealed the target list of the Bush administration as it set out on its post-9/11 war footing. The list included six nations: Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, and the Palestinian Authority. While the priority allotted to Afghanistan and subsequently Iraq was not in dispute, the remaining order was in flux."

Color Revolutions, Old and New
A quote...."In his new book, "Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order," F. William Engdahl explained a new form of US covert warfare - first played out in Belgrade, Serbia in 2000. What appeared to be "a spontaneous and genuine political 'movement,' (in fact) was the product of techniques" developed in America over decades."
    
Obama faces a Persian rebuff
Some quotes....""It is a little-known slice of history that in the countdown to the Anglo-American coup in Tehran against Mohammed Mosaddeq in 1953, the US Central Intelligence Agency lost nerve just as the Tehran street protests - eerily similar to the recent unrest - were about to be staged, but the British intelligence outpost in Cyprus which coordinated the entire operation held firm, forced the pace and ultimately created a fait accompli for Washington. -- At any rate, Tehran is going after Britain - "the most treacherous of foreign powers", to use Khamenei's words. Marching orders have been given to two British diplomats posted in Tehran, and four local employees working in the British Embassy remain under detention for questioning." -- bold by website editor

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It's The Votes That Count - 06-28-09 - mpg
Iran, Just RELAX!! – Of Course It Was A US-NRE PSYOP! - 06-26-09 - mpg

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It's All Good, Again: 'Uptick' in the American-Made Tides of Violence in Iraq
A quote...."From the very beginning of the abomination that is the American war in Iraq, imperial courtiers have pushed the same line: every act of mass slaughter in the occupied land was actually an encouraging development -- a sign that the insurgents were "getting desperate," that "dead-enders" were launching last-gasp efforts, unable to derail the bounty of liberty and peace that America's paternal goodness had bestowed upon the Iraqi people. -- This has held true from the first suicide attacks following George W. Bush's declaration of "Mission Accomplished" in the spring of 2003 and all through the mounting violence that has claimed more than a million innocent lives. The only exception was during the height of the genocidal fury of 2006, when the forces unleashed and empowered and assisted by the American occupiers carried out a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against fierce resistance. The American elite suffered a slight wobble at that point, putting together a conclave of worthies in the "Iraq Study Group" to suggest ways to tamp down the raging PR disaster. (And that's all there was to the ISG plan; they were never going to pull out of Iraq.) The whole episode could be seen as yet another sorry chapter in the saga of the ghoulish, goonish family that somehow came to hold sway in American affairs for almost three decades, with Daddy Bush's factotums guiding the ISG, while Junior Bush brushed them off and consulted his own little circle of militarist agitators to find a way to continue the war but get it off the front pages."

Triple Cross or Inside Job?
A quote...."In his just-released book, Triple Cross, former ABC News investigative reporter Peter Lance says (as summarized by Raw Story): -- Ali Mohamed ... was something of an al Qaeda super-spy who managed to work with terrorists, the Green Berets, the CIA and become an FBI informant, even while ensuring Osama bin Laden’s safe passage around the middle east. For years, Triple Cross alleges, the FBI and specifically [prosecutor Patrick] Fitzgerald, knew about him but allowed Mohamed’s activities to continue unchecked." -- also posted at BLN

See also the following recent postings.....
Saudi royals funded 9/11: Lawyers
Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists
Why Was Al Qaeda Excluded From the Suspects List? -- The Khobar Tower Bombing
Politicization of FBI continuing under Obama

The Best President Money Could Buy
A quote...."Today America is facing the same perilous patterns that the Roman Empire encountered over 1500 years ago. These patterns are characterized by prevalent corruption on every level of government, waging unnecessary expensive wars, inability to resolve conflicts in strategic areas within the empire, erosion of morality, control of the public, eradication of individual liberty, lavish borrowing and spending, hyperinflation, war mongering, and a wavering of the currency. Money and power are the ultimate goals that every man attempts to achieve in the hope of satisfying their egos. This pathological narcissism that infests most of our leaders has been the only driving force in their alleged passion for public service. -- President Barack Obama, allegedly the new face of change, had often proclaimed during his presidential campaign that he would not be bought or influenced by special interest groups, because he wanted to be a president of the people, for the people, and by the people. This rhetoric has rallied the populace who then enthusiastically rushed to send him contributions of $5 and $10 or more. His supporters also believed that he would finally bring back hope, freedom, prosperity, peace, love, and end the extensive depravity and abuses practiced by his predecessor. Sadly, the people were deceived once again."

Bankster Bailouts Of 2008/9 Exceed Over 200 Years Of Major Government Spending
Chart - A quote...."The amount of US taxpayer money committed to bailouts over the last 12 months by far exceeds the combined cost of major historical events dating back over 200 years. -- The combined amount spent, lent, consumed, borrowed, printed, guaranteed, assumed or otherwise committed to bailouts by the government from March 2008 to March 2009 amounts to some $15 TRILLION." -- bold/underline by website editor

The Eurasian Pipeline Calculus
A quote...."Calculus has two main variants—derivative and integral. The Eurasian energy pipeline geopolitics between Turkey Washington and Moscow today has elements of both. It is highly derivative in that the major actors across Central Asia from China, Russia to Turkey are very much engaged in a derived power game which has less to do with any specific state and more to do with maintaining Superpower hegemony for Washington. Integral as the de facto motion of various pipeline projects now underway or in discussion across Eurasia hold the potential to integrate the economic space of Eurasia in a way that poses a fundamental challenge to Washington’s projection of Full Spectrum Dominance over the greatest land mass on earth."

De-Dollarization: Dismantling America’s Financial-Military Empire
Related Article - A quote...."Challenging America will be the prime focus of extended meetings in Yekaterinburg, Russia (formerly Sverdlovsk) today and tomorrow (June 15-16) for Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The alliance is comprised of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrghyzstan and Uzbekistan, with observer status for Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia. It will be joined on Tuesday by Brazil for trade discussions among the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China)."

BRIC countries catch up and overtake G7
Related Article - A quote...."MOSCOW. – The Russian city of Yekaterinburg on May 16 hosted the first official summit of BRIC, a group comprising four countries showing the highest rate of economic growth – Brazil, Russia, India and China."


The ever changing story: Anatomy of a typical US military propaganda campaign
A quote...."One month later, after the bombings of a village in western Afghanistan that killed up wards of 150 civilians, we now get this half assed admission of culpability on the part of the US military. -- The US military is now saying that "errors" were made in the air strikes last May 4th that resulted in over a hundred civilian deaths.  Oh, they are still claiming that most killed were "Taliban" (what the Pentagon and their pocket poodle American media call anyone who take up arms against the holy selfless Paladins of the US military in Afghanistan).  And they are still hinting that this "Taliban" is responsible but this new story, a month later, is in stark contrast to first initial responses of the US military on this bombing- which were, in my opinion, outright lies made up out of whole cloth." - also posted at Uruknet - For more on this issue see....US Fake Intel / Propaganda

The Real Meaning of Allowing Guilty Pleas and Death Penalty Without Trial for Alleged 9/11 Plotters -- A quote...."The tin-pot dictator will not let the media talk to the American prisoner captured when his plane crashed. - The dictator says that the prisoner confessed to a horrible murder, and has pleaded guilty. - And so - the dictator announces - there will be no trial, just a death sentence. Indeed, the prisoner is Christian, and the dictator says that the prisoner has asked for martyrdom according to his religious beliefs. - Would the rest of the world believe this is fair? - Of course not. Moreover, world opinion would assume that the prisoner might very well be innocent of the murder charges. - This is exactly the situation we have currently with the prisoners at Guantanamo." - also posted at RogueGov -- See also....9/11 - Iraq - Torture Fables

Exclusive Interview with Future Prediction Expert Gerald Celente
Interview - A quote...."Mr. Celente puts part of the blame squarely on the federal government, and especially FED Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary  Geithner, and warns us not to believe a word they say  “They’re the same people who didn't see it coming - are now telling us the worst is over, that ‘green shoots are spouting upwards’.   But they were wrong before.  They’re wrong on this too”. -- “When you pump out tons of money manure into this system based on nothing – printing press paper, it’s like giving a patient with a chronic disease a pain killer -- it won’t cure the patient.” -- “But let’s go beyond the economics.  Our whole Constitution has been abrogated.  The president simply writes an Executive Order to do whatever he wants.  Nationalize the banks, take over the insurance industry, automobile industry, health care industry… -- None of it is constitutional.” -- When did the problem begin? -- “After Dwight Eisenhower -- our last great president -- the Allied Supreme Commander in WWII – who warned us of the dangers of the military-industrial complex.  We've become completely corrupted.”

Obama, Like Bush, Just Doesn’t Get It
A quote...."Obama, like President Bush, thinks that it’s all just a public-relations problem. We just have to get the message out that U.S. officials love Muslims. Once they get the message, the U.S. Empire will be able to impose its will throughout the Middle East. -- And that’s the core of the problem facing the American people. What business does the U.S. government have imposing its will on people who live thousands of miles away? -- Indeed, what right did the U.S. government have to oust the democratically elected prime minister of Iran and replace him with an unelected dictator, the Shah of Iran? -- What right did the U.S. government have to support Saddam Hussein and deliver weapons of mass destruction to him so that he could use them to kill Iranians? -- What right did the U.S. government have to intervene in the Persian Gulf War, especially after signaling to Saddam Hussein that the United States had no interest in the border conflict between Iraq and Kuwait? -- What right did the U.S. government have to impose brutal sanctions that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children?....."

The Household Driven Deflation?
Charts - A quote...."In his daily report yesterday, David Rosenberg had some pertinent things to say about deflation, not the least of which was debunking Melissa Francis' preconception that inflation is equivalent to commodity price increases. The key issue is the differential between absolute and relative price increases: in many ways the current inflation scare is even less moot than the panic in the summer of last year, when it became painfully obvious that neither retailers nor final-state manufacturers have pricing power (think excess capacity: if the manufacturing ISM is any indication, this pricing power is only going to get further obliterated in the coming months, eating away directly at the bottom line, and making the forward EPS ramp up even more of a mirage in the manufacturing sector; also worth pointing out that non-manufacturing ISM actually fell by 2.6% to 44.4%)." - bold by website editor

Time to Break Up the Banks
Video -  (Must view video. It explains the financial crisis in simple, easy, steps, sort of like a "Banksterism Guide for Dummies". - mpg)   -- A quote...."June 05, 2009 "The Nation" -- Last April, I wrote about A New Way Forward, a new and growing movement organized via the web and founded by young people who want to take back the power of the ordinary citizen to affect our economic structure. The organization's coming-out party took place last April 11 with more than sixty coordinated events coast to coast all making the case for alternative bailout plans based on the public's interest." -- also posted at the Nation & CommonDreams

Dollar's wounds reopen
A quote....""Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it." The adage applies well to the US Federal Reserve as it enters what may turn out to be an entirely new and more dangerous phase of the financial and economic crisis that is still firmly centered in the US - notwithstanding the ongoing Wall Street rally and increased hopes that the worst is now over. -- The Fed wished away the hysterical risk aversion reflex of global investors, which came to a head in autumn 2008, when big Wall Street banks collapsed, sending shockwaves around the globe. The position of Fed officials is, after all, that this is a crisis sparked mostly by panic-stricken investors who've artificially driven the value of America's innovative financial assets far below their true values, wrongfully smearing massive sums of such assets with the label, "Toxic!". "

Securitization: The Biggest Rip-off Ever
Some quotes...."June 05, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- -Is it possible to make hundreds of billions of dollars in profits on securities that are backed by nothing more than cyber-entries into a loan book? --  It's not only possible; it's been done." -- "Securitization--which is the conversion of pools of loans into securities that are sold in the secondary market--provides a means for massive debt-leveraging. The banks use off-balance sheet operations to create securities so they can avoid normal reserve requirements and bothersome regulatory oversight. Oddly enough, the quality of the loan makes no difference at all, since the banks make their money on loan originations and other related fees. What matters is quantity, quantity, quantity; an industrial-scale assembly line of fetid loans dumped on unsuspecting investors to fatten the bottom line. And, boy, can Wall Street grind out the rotten paper when there's no cop on the beat and the Fed is cheering from the bleachers. In an analysis written by economist Gary Gorton for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s 2009 Financial Markets Conference titled, "Slapped in the Face by the Invisible Hand; Banking and the Panic of 2007", the author shows that mortgage-related securities ballooned from $492.6 billion in 1996 to $3,071.1 in 2003, while asset backed securities (ABS) jumped from $168.4 billion in 1996 to $1,253.1 in 2006. All told, more than $20 trillion in securitized debt was sold between 1997 to 2007. How much of that debt will turn out to be worthless as foreclosures skyrocket and the banks balance sheets come under greater and greater pressure?  "

The Eye of the Economic Hurricane
A quote...."Everything was falling in price – houses, office buildings, stocks, commodities…practically everything except the US dollar, US bonds, and gold… These three were seen as the only safe refuges for storm-tossed investors. -- But on March 9, 2009, came a lull. Reluctantly, investors came out of their storm shelters. The skies lightened…the sun shined. Oil has gone up 53% since then. Stocks worldwide are up about 30%. -- And now…people say “the worst is behind us.” -- We meteorologists watch the skies like everyone else. But we also read reports from big storms of the past. And what we notice is that this doesn’t look like the passing storms of the ’80s or ’90s. It looks to us like a major change in weather patterns. To be more precise, it looks to us like the Great Storm of the ’30s. Do you remember that one, dear reader? No? Well, we don’t either, but we’ve read the histories. It was a doozy. And it began…well…just like this one. -- In 1930, six months after the initial storm front passed, world output was down about 15%. Today, it is down about 15%, too. Stock markets were only down about 20% in mid-1930. Today, they’re down about 35%. And world trade slipped about 15% in the six months following the onset of the Great Crash of ’29. Today, it is down 25%."

A Bush in sheep's clothing
Photo - They say a picture is worth a thousand words....they're right. - mpg

If You Are Stressed Now, Just Wait - Policymakers Have Created A Perfect Storm
A quote...."June 03, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- Economic news remains focused on banks and housing, while the threat mounts to the US dollar from massive federal budget deficits in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. -- Earlier this year the dollar’s exchange value rose against currencies, such as the euro. UK pound, and Swiss franc, against which the dollar had been steadily falling. The dollar’s rise made US policymakers complacent, even though the rise was due to flight from over-leveraged financial instruments and falling stock markets into “safe” Treasuries. Since April, however, the dollar has steadily declined as investors and foreign central banks realize that the massive federal budget deficits are likely to be monetized. -- What happens to the dollar will be the key driver of what lies ahead. The likely scenario could be nasty." - also posted at CounterPunch

Chart of the Day - S&P 500 P/E Ratio
Chart - Interesting chart. It's seems to reflect the growing "Virtual Economy™" - mpg

Ordered Assassinations, Sectarian Bomb Attacks Targeting Iraqi Civilians
A quote...."Former collaborator discloses details of US-ordered assassinations, sectarian bomb attacks targeting Iraqi civilians -- An Iraqi who asked not to be identified had disclosed some of the US activities such as assassinations and bombings in markets that aim at sparking sectarian fighting among Iraqis so as to facilitate the partition of the country." -- This will need independent confirmation, but considering what's contained in the US Support of Terror,  US support Death Sqds  and US Sponsored Civil Wars weblists, it all sounds perfectly plausible. - mpg - also posted at WarInIraq

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