Sunday, September 25, 2016
Alexander Mercouris — US rages as Russia calls its Syrian bluff
Following the collapse of the ceasefire, and with the forcible imposition of a no-fly zone for all practical purposes ruled out, the US found itself left with nothing other than Kerry’s absurd proposal that Russia and Syria impose a no-fly zone on themselves. The moment the Russians rejected this proposal – as they were bound to do – the US found itself left with literally nothing at all.
It is this impotence to effect militarily the course of the battle of Aleppo – an impotence which British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has admitted – which is behind the furious denunciations we are now hearing as the US and its allies scramble desperately to try to get the Russians to call the battle off, saving their Jihadi proteges in Aleppo from total defeat and themselves from the humiliation of the public failure of their strategy.
The Duran
US rages as Russia calls its Syrian bluff
Alexander Mercouris
Jack Lifton — China’s plan to secure critical rare earths and technology globally
An unintended though ultimately predictable consequence of globalization has been natural resource production monopolization. The massive transfer of wealth that resulted from lowering the costs of labor for and in “developed” countries has been accompanied by a political awakening in resource rich countries to the economic power of controlling natural resource production locally. What has been completely overlooked by economic theorists and neoliberalism (free and open markets) advocates is that unless everyone adheres to a theory and acts within its strictures then not free markets but oligarchic (nationally or individually) stratified markets result.…Investor Intel
China’s plan to secure critical rare earths and technology globally
Jack Lifton
ht MRW in the comments
Sputnik — India’s Deployment of BrahMos Supersonic Stealth Missile is Making China Nervous
Another arms race ratchets up.
The Indian military deployed a fourth regiment of 100 BrahMos missiles and five autonomous missile launchers in the North-Eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh disconcertingly close to the country’s border with China amid festering tensions between New Delhi and Beijing in large part based on China’s pledge to support its long-time ally Pakistan in the event of an attack.
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) immediately denounced the deployment calling it a threat and saying it raises the stakes over a longstanding territorial dispute between the two countries.…That's a lot of real resources going into weaponry.
Sputnik International
India’s Deployment of BrahMos Supersonic Stealth Missile is Making China Nervous
Sputnik International — US Investors Buy Half of Russia’s New $1.25 Billion Eurobonds Issuance
Sputnik International
US Investors Buy Half of Russia’s New $1.25 Billion Eurobonds Issuance
James W Carden — How Libyan ‘Regime Change’ Lies Echo in Syria
Earlier this month, a select committee of British parliamentarians released a reportwhich condemned the U.K. government under David Cameron for its role in the 2011 NATO intervention in Libya. The report makes plain that the principal basis on which the intervention was predicated – that then-Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was on the verge of committing a wholesale slaughter of the rebel stronghold Benghazi – was a lie propagated by Western and Gulf State media outlets.
It also shows the extent to which the crisis was driven by Libyan exiles who – perhaps quite understandably – had an axe to grind with the Gaddafi regime. In this – and in other ways, as we shall see – the Libyan crisis shares a number of similarities with the Syrian crisis. Indeed, it would be fair to view the debacle in Libya as a dress rehearsal for the war outside powers have been waging against the sovereign government of Syria for the past five years.…Cui bono?
From the very start, the opposition to Assad included sectarian extremists who chanted: “Christians to Beirut, Alawis to the grave.”…Russians are dumbfounded that the West is oblivious to the fact that the Sunni "opposition" is committed to eliminating Christianity in Syria.
The journalist and analyst John Rosenthal translated a Jan. 12, 2012 report from Homs by a Dutch Jesuit, Father Frans van der Lugt, who was later murdered, likely by al-Nusra militants, in April 2014.
The Jesuit missionary observed that: “Most of the citizens of Syria do not support the opposition. … you also cannot say that this is a popular uprising. The majority of people are not part of the rebellion and certainly not part of the armed rebellion. What is occurring is, above all, a struggle between the army and armed Sunni groups that aim to overturn the Alawite regime and take power.
“From the start the protest movements were not purely peaceful. From the start I saw armed demonstrators marching along in the protests, who began to shoot at the police first. Very often the violence of the security forces has been a reaction to the brutal violence of the armed rebels.”The fact that a "Jesuit missionary" is even permitted in Syria says volumes. This is not permitted in countries under Islamic rule (sharia).
… the U.S., ever at the beck and call of the Gulf State autocracies who are our actual enemies, Assad has became the target of regime change enthusiasts in the U.S. and Europe. Their designs have wrecked large swathes of Syria, resulted in an unprecedented migrant crisis, destroyed the lives of many millions, gave rise to ISIS and strengthened the very same Islamist radicals who attacked us on 9/11 and who remain the sworn enemies of the West.Consortium News
How Libyan ‘Regime Change’ Lies Echo in Syria
James W Carden is a contributing writer for The Nation and editor of The American Committee for East-West Accord’s eastwestaccord.com. He previously served as an advisor on Russia to the Special Representative for Global Inter-governmental Affairs at the US State Department.
Branko Milanovic — Reframing the world
I listened this morning to a brilliant talk by Danny Quah on what changes in the world during the past twenty years or so portend for the intellectual leadership of the world, or to be more specific, how the political and economic life should optimally be organized given the global changes in economic power that we are witnessing. In the beginning of his speech Danny defines the two tenets of the Western (or as he puts it, American) framing of an optimal society: economic freedom and democracy. This is the well-known paradigm of liberal capitalist democracy that, according to Fukuyama and later Acemoglu and Robinson, represents the end point of human evolution. Danny links it, rightly in my view, in addition to “American exceptionalism”, that is to the belief that America, by its own example, shows to the world how it should be organized, and that ultimately, the way the world will end up by being organized will be as a form of a “Greater America”.
But then Danny says, something has gone wrong with this approach….Important to be thinking about.
Global Inequality
Reframing the world
Branko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and formerly lead economist in the World Bank's research department and senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The so-called liberal view is paradoxical in that liberalism is based on multi-polarity on one hand and on the other, opposing any view that self-styled "liberals" regard as threatening their conception of liberalism.
In the first place, there are many conceptions of liberalism based on different mixes of social, political and economic liberalism. This results in many possible organizational configurations. America is just one of these and its success historically has depended more on America's place in history and historical accident than the determinative result of an organizational idea. The same conditions do not exists elsewhere, so it is unlikely that the American organizational model can be exported successfully to any great degree.
Secondly, American "liberalism" based on "American exceptionalism" is itself a narrow form of liberalism. Based on what criteria can it claim to be"best"? American "exceptionalism" is largely imagined based on selectivity that is influenced by cognitive biases like nativism.
American liberalism is unlikely to be accepted as a paradigm in a so-called liberal world that is open to multipolarity, for the simple reason that most of the world's people are not Americans and have their own viewpoints that have been shaped over millennia by history and culture. Lockean liberalism was largely born in 18th century England and exported to colonies, where it became the organizing idea behind the founding the United States of America. But British and American liberalism are different and have developed in different ways. Liberalism was adopted in Continental Europe subsequent to WWI and WWII, and again then result was hardly homogenous.
America needs to get over itself and recognize that history is an organic process because it is an artifact of biological evolution as a complex adaptive system. Evolution is experimental and emergence is ongoing.
Liberalism is a very recent phenomenon on the historical scene and it is far from established how viable it is as an evolutionary trait. There are pros and cons. Moreover, there are twists and turns based on the paradoxical nature of a liberalism as an organizing idea and the tradeoffs involved.
Noah Feldman — The Geopolitics of Deciding Who Is Sunni
Ok, a bit snarky, but that is the subtext and implication.
The author apparently doesn't realize that moderate Sunni rejection of Wahhabism in the face of US support of its chief advocate, KSA, implies US support of KSA state-sponsored jihadi terrorism. And suggests that Vladimir Putin is attacking the US by rejecting Sunni extremism, which threats Russia directly since the Russia Federation has population of about 15 million and Islam has been established there since the 7th century.
Oh, and the IsraelI hardline government also supports KSA and is on board with using jihadis as proxies, based on the strategic maxim, "the enemy (KSA) of our enemy (Iran) is our friend." (Disclaimer: I am neither anti-Semitic, nor anti-Israel, I am anti-Zionist and anti-apartheid.)
The idea that this is "geopolitics" is contradicted by the author's reporting.
Ahmed el-Tayeb, the state-appointed grand imam of the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, was the event’s headliner. Although it has declined in recent decades, Al-Azhar was for centuries considered the most influential Sunni scholarly institution. Its head, known as the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, is by job description alone a major figure in the Sunni world.
The world should be celebrating this amidst the calls for moderate Islam to denounce Wahhabi and Salafi takfirism and jihadism. Instead Bloomberg View bemoans that a US ally is being called out for it. Shame on them.
Brian Romanchuk — Primer: Endogenous Versus Exogenous Money
One of the long-running debates within economics is the question whether money is endogenous or exogenous. Those who follow internet economic debates can expect this argument to flare up periodically. This debate should largely be considered dead and buried; and abolishing money from economic theory would put the final nail in the coffin…Bond Economics
Primer: Endogenous Versus Exogenous Money
Brian Romanchuk
Diane Coyle — Shadow-boxing with reality
Mulling over the debate under way about general equilibrium and macroeconomics, I picked up Paul Samuelson’s Foundations of Economic Analysis for the first time in ages. In the foreword to my 9th (1979) edition, he wrote: “In a hard, exact science a practioner does not really have to know much about methodology. … By contrast, a scholar in economics who is fundamentally confused concerning the relationship of definition, tautology, logical implication, empirical hypothesis and factual refutation may spend a lifetime shadow-boxing with reality. In a sense therefore, to earn his daily bread as a fruitful contributor to knowledge, the practitioner of an intermediately hard science like economics must come to terms with methodological problems.” Hmm. We have a lot of shadow-boxers, I fear.The Enlightened Economist
Shadow-boxing with reality
Diane Coyle | freelance economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission and is acting Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation
Rob Urie: Wells Fargo - A Scam Too Far
The Wells Fargo scandal shows how much the One Percent have captured the government and the media. Many services were privatized not to make them more efficient, but to be a revenue steam for the One Percent.
Note: Windows 10 on my PC has just upgraded itself and it has made Blogger almost impossible to use, so I can't make the link active.
Well, I managed to sort it out, but I have to use the Windows Edge browser from now on which is unsupported. Hopefully it will be okay.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/23/a-scam-too-far/
Note: Windows 10 on my PC has just upgraded itself and it has made Blogger almost impossible to use, so I can't make the link active.
Well, I managed to sort it out, but I have to use the Windows Edge browser from now on which is unsupported. Hopefully it will be okay.
Graph: the capitalist coup that began in the 1970s was a response to a real crisis alternatively framed as a falling rate of profit and / or declining plutocratic control over Western political economy. Financialization shifted the balance of power back toward capital through the money system. Banks create money against separable liabilities. A rough analogy is the ability to take a loan against your neighbor’s house— you (connected capitalists) get the money and your neighbor’s house gets taken when you don’t repay the loan. The eventual result is that claims on economic production become increasingly concentrated as the economic system becomes unstable and destabilizing. Source: St. Louis Federal Reserve.
The class war visible in the current political season was launched from ‘above’ in the 1970s by connected capitalists— inherited wealth with support from a committed managerial class, with the goal of regaining power and control over Western political economy. The promise, made against the actual outcomes of several centuries of Western imperial history, was of broadly shared prosperity gotten through the constrained self-realization of capitalist democracy. The actual outcome is broadly declining economic circumstance for most people, a tenuous prosperity for supporting bourgeois managers and a new Gilded-Age for the self-enriching class of corporate executives, inherited wealth and financial predators.
Graph: while the promise of shared prosperity was held-by-degree by capitalists, corporate executives and their ‘useful idiots’ in academia when the capitalist coup was launched in the 1970s, by 2008 the evidence had accumulated to the point of being irrefutable— capitalism, economic imperialism posed as ‘free choice,’ is a catastrophe-generating mode of social organization that benefits a tiny minority at the expense of most citizens of the planet. Under the terms put forward by academic explainers of capitalism (economists), the existing system is only plausible during the brief periods of respite between recurring crises. The broad trend of economic decline suggests that social turmoil will mount until resolution is found. Source: St. Louis Federal Reserve.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/23/a-scam-too-far/
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Almost everything you know about climate change solutions is outdated
The clean energy revolution is now unstoppable.
Some more good news: Ultra cheap energy is around the corner - and it's green. This is an energy miracle - where even cars will cost next to nothing to run. And this is just the beginning. Within ten years diesel buses will be gone too. Go to Walmart, and just plug your car into an electric socket for free. That's how cheap.
Europe’s biggest floating solar panel array at a UK reservoir.
Richard Vague — How to Suffocate Your Economy: Drown it in Massive Private Debt.
One of the key and largely overlooked reasons for this disappointing growth is hiding in plain sight: the increasing global burden of private debt—the combination of business debt and household debt. Even though government debt grabs all the headlines, private debt is larger than government debt and has more impact on economic outcomes. In the United States, total nonfinancial private debt is $27 trillion and public debt is $19 trillion. More telling, since 1950, U.S. private debt has almost tripled from 55 percent of GDP to 150 percent of GDP, and most other major economies have shown a similar trend. [See Chart 2.] Since GDP is largely the sum of all the spending, and thus income, of households and businesses in an economy, if aggregate private debt to GDP has tripled, that means that average businesses and households have three times more debt in relation to their income. Both private debt and government debt matter, and both will be discussed here, but of these two, it is private debt that has the larger and more direct impact on economic outcomes, and addressing the issues associated with private debt is the more productive path to economic revival.…Evonomics
How to Suffocate Your Economy: Drown it in Massive Private Debt.
Richard Vague, currently managing partner of Gabriel Investments and the chairman of The Governor’s Woods Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic organization. Previously, he was co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Energy Plus, and also co-founder and CEO of two consumer banks, First USA and Juniper Financial.
Stephen Cohen — US-Russian Deal: 'DoD Openly Saying It May or May Not Obey Obama'
Given the fact that US warplanes knew the Deir ez-Zor region very well and that the US Department of Defense (DOD) had openly expressed its skepticism regarding the US-Russian plan on Syria, it is "a little hard to believe" that the attack on the Syrian Arab Army was an "accident," Professor Cohen suggested.
He quoted the New York Times editorial, which read that "at the Pentagon, officials would not even agree that if a cessation of violence in Syria held for seven days — the initial part of the deal — the Defense Department would put in place its part of the agreement on the eighth day." The editorial also referred to Carter, "who has deep reservations about the plan for American and Russian forces to jointly target terrorist groups." "In other words," Cohen noted, "Pentagon officials refused to say whether they would obey President Obama."
The US academic stressed that in a Constitutional democracy where the military is clearly subordinated to the civilian leadership that is extraordinary. "We've come to a point in this craziness, in this New Cold War with Russia where DOD is openly saying it may or may not obey President Obama. If DOD will say that publicly you can imagine the opposition in Washington against the Syrian deal, [US Secretary of State John] Kerry brokered with Russian Foreign Minister [Sergei] Lavrov," Professor Cohen highlighted. The professor remarked that the opposition comprises very influential figures from the Pentagon, the US State Department, both Democratic and Republican parties and the US' mainstream media.If true, this is not only insubordination but subordination of the president of the United States to policy dictated by the deep state. Americans and the rest of the world should be concerned that the US has apparently gone rogue.
This also accounts for the about face of candidate Obama on becoming President Obama and switching from someone that received the Nobel Peace Prize — prematurely to be sure — to an ally of the neocons and liberal interventionists, only attempting to restrain extreme policy rather than to reverse it.
Sputnik International
US-Russian Deal: 'DoD Openly Saying It May or May Not Obey Obama'
Ramanan — James Tobin On Real Business Cycle Theory
Nice Tobin quote.
James Tobin On Real Business Cycle Theory
V. Ramanan
Also
Marc Lavoie On The DSGE Emperor
Russian Intel General: the CIA May Be Planning to Assassinate Putin — Andrey Afanasyev interviews Leonid Reshetnikov
We should have no illusions. Today’s United States of America is interested only in one thing – destroying Russia as a civilizational, geopolitical, military and political rival — as well as an economic rival, with its treasure trove of resources.Russia Insider
Russian Intel General: the CIA May Be Planning to Assassinate Putin
Andrey Afanasyev interviews Leonid Reshetnikov, Director of an influential think tank, the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS), and a retired lieutenant general of Russia's foreign intelligence service
Andrey Afanasyev interviews Leonid Reshetnikov, Director of an influential think tank, the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS), and a retired lieutenant general of Russia's foreign intelligence service
Stefan Verstappen: Paradise Stolen - Episode 3 -The Myth of Overpopulation
Stefan Verstappen is a survivalist, a bit libertarian - probably in the Ron Paul tradition. Like Ron Paul, he is emphatic, but I wonder how libertarianism fits in with this?
In this video Stefan Verstappen looks into the myth of overpopulation. I thought I would put out something that's a bit more positive for once.
I thought the Stefan Verstappen videos Part 4 and 5 are unacceptable for this site. The Myth of Terrorism goes deep into conspiracy theory, and Why We Are Poor is a rant about tax, although if half of US taxes are going on the military then Stefan has a point.
In the comment section under, 'Why We Are Poor', I wrote to Stefan Verstappen telling him about MMT and the way that fiat money works is counter-intuitive. I then put out the link for Bill Mitchell's, Why Tax Doesn't Pay for Anything. When I commented on his first video, which was Part 1, I soon got a reply, so I might get one about MMT sometime soon as well. I doubt if he will agree, but as he very emphatic then maybe he, or even Ron Paul, could eventually see another way. At least there could be room for compromise.
For those of you that missed part 1, here it is, it is excellent:
Paradise Stolen - Episode 1 - DON'T SHOW YOUR CHILDREN!
Anti-War video showing another side to the cost of war - the life you could have had. WARNING: graphic images and loud music halfway through.
Chris Hedges: Sabah Alnasseri: Arab Political Thought 2015
Chris Hedges interviews Sabah Alnasseri who explains how ISIS came about. In Iraq Washington disbanded the Iraqi army. the police, and the civil servants and left the civilians at the mercy of bandits. Washington also let the soldiers take their weapons home with them further fueling sectarian violence. People had no services or a functioning police force and young people found some hope in the Islamic fundamentalists. ISIS offered law and order, the complete sharing of the spoils of war, comradeship, social inclusion, etc. This was very appealing to many young men, although at some stage they are sent to die.
Joyce Nelson: TISA and the Privatization of Public Services
A very clear look at TISA, which is ruse to override our democracy. The One Percent are trying to ensure that public services can't be brought back into the public domain. As neoliberalism grinds to a halt, where Western zombie economies continue to shuffle along like the living dead, and just as the world is beginning to see Neoconservativatism for what it really is, the One Percent are trying to slip this through while they have a chance. What's alarming is how the ruling political parties are gleefully going along with it - all in on the make, I guess. We in the West call ourselves democratic, but this is autocratic. If only we really did have a free press in the West. No one wants this neoliberal nightmare.
A short, concise article, I almost reprinted all of it. This is about half.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/23/tisa-and-the-privatization-of-public-services/
excerpts:
A short, concise article, I almost reprinted all of it. This is about half.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/23/tisa-and-the-privatization-of-public-services/
excerpts:
A new report reveals the extent to which local governments around the world have been taking services delivery back into the public sector. Water and waste water services, garbage collection, electricity delivery, health services, transit systems, and other services that were contracted-out, partially privatized through public-private partnerships (P3s) or privatized outright are now rapidly being brought back into public control across the globe because privatizations resulted in economic (or other) major problems.
The report, called Back In House: Why Local Governments Are Bringing Services Home, was recently released by the Centre for Civic Governance at the Columbia Institute in Vancouver, B.C.
On the contrary, as I reveal in my new book – Beyond Banksters: Resisting the New Feudalism [2] – the financial oligarchy is particularly focused on increasing privatization and is pushing the trade deals in order to make remunicipalization impossible
This is especially true of the little-known, secret deal called the Trade In Services Agreement (TISA), which the writers of Back In House might not know about. TISA is the back-up deal in case TPP (TransPacific Partnership), TTIP (TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) and CETA fail.Team TISA
Nick Dearden, director of UK-based Global Justice Now (GJN), calls TISA “a massive super-privatization deal covering everything from finance to education.” [3] TISA focuses on services, not goods, and allows multinational corporations to provide services across national borders by turning public services into commodities run for profit.
As I reveal in Beyond Banksters, TISA was dreamed up by the Global Services Coalition, whose “Team TISA” members include Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, MetLife, Prudential, Verizon, Wal-Mart, and other corporate titans intent on privatizing the world.[7] Unfortunately, municipalities will be affected by pending trade deals, especially TISA.
Friday, September 23, 2016
David Fields — RRPE OnlineFirst of URPE at ASSA pieces published
Links to articles.
RRPE OnlineFirst of URPE at ASSA pieces published
David Fields
Nathan Tankus — The Illustrious Beginnings of Tankus Notes
Hello!My name is Nathan Tankus. I’m a writer and Research Scholar with the Modern Money Network. I’ve started to blog here because I have an overflowing multitude of interdisciplinary interests in economics and social sciences generally that are starting to overwhelm me. I read about a bewilderingly large maze of different topics all connected by a (sometimes loose) relationship to economics. I do this because many different things topics and issues catch my interest at any given time. By blogging here I hope to catalogue things I’ve read since I’m sure I’ve lost track of many interesting papers and ideas from the time I read without cataloguing.
In short this blog will mostly be public notes to myself. I’m making these public because an audience helps to improve my writing, get other people thinking and arguing about things I think are interesting and to provoke others to rethink what they think they know. I will also likely post more formal blog posts meant to garner attention on the results of my research or other projects in relation to MMN.…Nathan Tankus Notes
The Illustrious Beginnings of Tankus Notes
Nathan Tankus
ht JW Mason
Matias Vernengo — The Trouble with Paul Romer's Angriness
The bad. Paul Romer is clueless himself.
Naked Keynesianism
The Trouble with Paul Romer's Angriness
Matias Vernengo | Associate Professor of Economics, Bucknell University
Naked Keynesianism
The Trouble with Paul Romer's Angriness
Matias Vernengo | Associate Professor of Economics, Bucknell University
Ignacio Vieira — Brazil’s President Michel Temer Says Rousseff was Impeached for Refusing His Economic Agenda
Brazilian President Michel Temer let an open secret become explicitly clear during a speech to business and foreign policy leaders yesterday in New York. The country’s elected and now-removed President, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached because of her position on economic policy, rather than any alleged wrongdoing on her part, her installed successor admitted. Temer’s stunning, and seemingly unscripted, acknowledgement will surely bolster the view of impeachment opponents that Dilma’s removal was a “parliamentary coup d’etat.”
In his remarks, Temer clearly stated what impeachment opponents have long maintained: that he and his party began to agitate for Rousseff’s impeachment when she refused to implement the pro-business economic plan of Temer’s party. That economic plan which Rousseff refused to implement called for widespread cuts to social programs and privatization, an agenda radically different from the one approved by Brazilians through the ballot box in 2014, when Dilma’s Workers’ Party won its fourth straight presidential election. The comments were delivered on Wednesday to an audience at the New York headquarters of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA).…
“And many months ago, while I was still vice president, we released a document named ‘A Bridge to the Future’ because we knew it would be impossible for the government to continue on that course. We suggested that the government should adopt the theses presented in that document called ‘A Bridge to the Future.’ But, as that did not work out, the plan wasn’t adopted and a process was established which culminated with me being installed as president of the republic.”There you have it.
Now popular ex-president Lula is being forced to stand trial for corruption to prevent his running again with the likelihood of being elected.
Neoliberalism (bourgeois liberalism) at its finest.
Temer’s comments are yet more confirmation that Rousseff’s impeachment did not occur due to alleged budget tricks, as the Brazilian media and the country’s now-ruling faction regularly claims. Nor was it for the traditional Brazilian family, nor for God, or against corruption, as congresspeople claimed during their “yes” votes. It was conducted on behalf of the interests of business owners and to the detriment of workers. It was for an agenda of impunity, profit, and power that would never be ratified democratically by the Brazilian voting population at the ballot box, and was thus imposed on them under the guise of upholding the law. Anyone still doubting that should simply listen to what the prime beneficiary of impeachment, Michel Temer, just said to his most important constituency.The Intercept
Brazil’s President Michel Temer Says Rousseff was Impeached for Refusing His Economic Agenda
Ignacio Vieira
Also
Also
The only exception to this wall of silence was a columnist from the right-wing newspaper Estadão, Lúcia Guimarães, who spent several hours on Twitter yesterday completely humiliating herself in a spirited attempt to deny that Temer actually said this. She began by insinuating that The Intercept Brasil made a suspicious “cut” in the video that altered reality — basically accusing Vieira of committing fraud without the slightest evidence, all to protect Temer.Brazil’s Big Media Ignores Temer’s Confession — Except Estadão Columnist Who Falsely Claimed Video Was Altered
Then, after a Folha columnist sent her a link to the full video showing that nothing was distorted, she nonetheless announced that she would only believe Temer said this once she saw the drives from each camera simultaneously played, and she added that what made the story so suspicious was that President Temer is a best-selling author of a book on constitutional law who would not say such a thing about impeachment. Only once the full transcript of Temer’s remarks was posted would she finally admit that he really said it, but rather than retract her false accusations or apologize to Vieira and The Intercept Brasil for having implied the video was fraudulently edited, she instead simply posted the relevant part of Temer’s remarks without reference to her prior efforts to smear Vieira, as though she were the one who discovered and was reporting these comments for the first time. Even once she did finally admit the truth about Temer’s remarks, she bitterly claimed that impeachment opponents were turning the story into a “carnival” and celebrating the revelation.
Glen Greenwald
The Saker — Why the recent developments in Syria show that the Obama Administration is in a state of confused agony
The latest developments in Syria are not, I believe, the result of some deliberate plan of the USA to help their “moderate terrorist” allies on the ground, but they are the symptom of something even worse: the complete loss of control of the USA over the situation in Syria and, possibly, elsewhere. Let me just re-state what just happenedThe Vineyard of the Saker
Why the recent developments in Syria show that the Obama Administration is in a state of confused agony
The Saker
Lord Keynes — Paul Romer’s Plan For Sweden: Are You Kidding Me?!
Just when you were beginning to think that Paul Romer was one of the sane voices in economics and political economy. Now this head scratcher.
Social Democracy For The 21St Century: A Post Keynesian Perspective
Paul Romer’s Plan For Sweden: Are You Kidding Me?!
Lord Keynes
Rick Sterling — How US Propaganda Plays in Syrian War
U.S. foreign policymakers have experimented at planting propaganda in social media and then citing it as evidence to support their goals, a process now playing out in the Syrian “regime change,” as Rick Sterling explains."Propaganda" is the ordinary language term for it. The technical term for it is "making shit up." A corollary is "duping the rubes."
Noam Chomsky calls it "manufacturing consent." The article shows how consent gets manufactured by covert orchestration and then planting in the media echo chamber.
Whatever, it's all about generating a hoax and propagating it. This takes organization and funding. Guess who provides it.
Consortium News
How US Propaganda Plays in Syrian War
Rick Sterling
Robert Waldmann — On The new heavyweight macro critics
Maybe we are witnessing such a revolution in economics, with major players getting behind the need for change.
But actual change does not occur until a replacement is available.
Angry Bear
On The new heavyweight macro critics
Angry Bear
On The new heavyweight macro critics
Robert Waldmann
The Humanist Report: Watch JILL STEIN decimate them all!!
Jill Stein answers her questions really well, Well, perhaps when your right it is easy.
Jill Stein returned to Fox News where their biased host, Chris Wallace, did everything to make her look dumb, but she came prepared and completely owned him; and arguably, even had him visibly rattled as he tried to shut her down. She handled it masterfully.
The follow up:
Jill Stein Returned to Fox News & Demolished Them Again
Green Party nominee Dr. Jill Stein went back on Fox News after completely destroying them on economic issues, and they invited her back for seconds—this time on foreign policy. They tried extra hard to vilify her, but she ran circles around them. Enjoy!
Pope Francis — Journalism Based On Gossip And Lies Is A Form Of Terrorism
Pontiff says journalists must go the extra mile to seek the truth and ensure they don’t spread rumours which can ‘kill a person with your tongue’Buzz kill.
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