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Stuck in the Chimney Jeff Feltman Delivers his Annual Yuletide Gifts to Lebanon
by FRANKLIN LAMB
South Beirut
Over the past few years, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has sledded into Lebanon bearing gifts during the Yuletide season more regularly than Santa Clause. Yet, as happened yesterday, he somehow manages to finish his gift giving and lift off to continue his rounds as The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
No sooner had I arrived back in Lebanon than I heard the news that he was on his way—again to deliver holiday tidings to Lebanese officials.
Bailouts, Bondage and Political Bankruptcy
By Stephen Lendman
Europe and America perhaps face their gravest ever economic crisis. Growing millions are impoverished, unemployed, and out of luck.
Hunger and homelessness are increasing. So is unaddressed anger over handouts to bankers, not people facing crushing hardships.
Economist Michael Hudson calls finance a new mode of warfare. Generalissimo bankers run everything. Co-opted politicians serve them. In return, they're rewarded handsomely.
Ordinary people lose out entirely. So do economies being strip-mined for profit. Hudson asks what's to stop major Western banks from creating any amount of money they wish?
Central Bank Intervention: Much Ado About Nothing
By Stephen Lendman
On November 30, the Fed, ECB, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, Bank of Canada and Swiss National Bank acted together to cut the rate on dollar liquidity swap arrangements by 50 basis points. Markets surged. Irrationally trumped reason.
What, in fact, was accomplished? Swap lines were always available. From 2007 - 2009, they were initiated or expanded globally four times.
Lowering the price modestly was done to ease pressure on troubled Eurozone countries. However, funding isn't the problem. It's solvency. Nonetheless, the ECB perhaps agreed to be lender of last resort, at least to some degree.
US/Pakistan’s Toxic Alliance
By Stephen Lendman
Partnering with America has a price. Pakistan's paid dearly. Post-9/11, it's been harmed economically, politically, and strategically. Has its military now had enough and want out? More on that below.
At issue is the latest November 26 incident involving NATO forces killing 24 Pakistani soldiers and injuring 13 others in two remote posts along Afghanistan's border.
Army spokesman General Athar Abbas called the attack "unprovoked and indiscriminate. There was no reason for it. Map references of all our border posts have been passed to NATO a number of time."
General Ishfaq Nadeem called them unprovoked blatant aggression, adding that attacking border checkposts deliberately violates coordination procedures.
A Dangerous Woman: Indefinite Detention at Carswell
By Susan Lindauer
Some things are unforgivable in a democracy. A bill moving through Congress, authorizing the military to imprison American citizens indefinitely, without a trial or hearing, ranks right at the top of that list.
I know—I lived through it on the Patriot Act. When Congress decided to squelch the truth about the CIA's advance warnings about 9/11 and the existence of a comprehensive peace option with Iraq, as the CIA's chief Asset covering Iraq, I became an overnight threat. To protect their cover-up scheme, I got locked in federal prison inside Carswell Air Force Base, while the Justice Department battled to detain me "indefinitely" up to 10 years, without a hearing or guilty plea. Worst yet, they demanded the right to forcibly drug me with Haldol, Ativan and Prozac, in a violent effort to chemically lobotomize the truth about 9/11 and Iraqi Pre-War Intelligence.
Wall Street is at it Again! This Time its France!
By Timothy V. Gatto
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately. Now I’m no economist, but I’ve learned enough in the past few years that convince me that we are all getting screwed royally. The other day I wrote an article about Bernie Sanders (I-VT) who was introducing a Bill in the Senate to amend the Constitution. Now I was happy that someone was paying attention to where the problems in this country are really coming from.
Now it is a few days later and I am realizing that Bernie Sanders’ introduction of an amendment to the Constitution will probably be received as well as all the bills that Dennis Kucinich (d-Oh.) introduces. In other words this Bill will go absolutely nowhere. Other people in Congress will treat this Bill like people in the middle Ages treated plague victims. Taking personhood away from corporations with a Senate like we have now will go absolutely nowhere.
The Goal is Not to Occupy it is to End Corporate Rule
By Kevin Zeese
With encampments being closed across the country it is important to remember the end goal is not to occupy public space, it is to end corporate rule. We seek to replace the rule of money with the rule of people. Occupying is a tactic but the grand strategy of the Occupy Movement is to weaken the pillars that hold the corporate-government in place by educating, organizing and mobilizing people into an independent political force.
The occupations of public space have already done a great deal to lift the veil of lies. People are now more aware than ever that the wealth divide is caused by a rigged economic system of crony capitalism and that we can create a fair economy that works for all Americans. We are also aware that many of our fellow citizens are ready to take action – extreme action of sleeping outside in the cold in a public park. And, we also now know that we have the power to shift the debate and force the economic and political elites to listen to us. In just a few months we have made a difference.
Russia united -- for the time being
Eric Walberg
The winner by default Russian Communist
Party leader Gennady Zyuganov.
The Duma elections held no surprises, but the election turmoil can’t obscure the kind of politics that will continue to characterise Russia over the coming decade thanks to United Russia and its eminence grise.
With a 60 per cent turnout, United Russia’s solid 49.5 per cent plurality in the 4 December Duma elections, giving it 238 of the 450 seats, is the envy of any Western political party. But it is nonetheless a disappointment after its 2007 sweep, where it gained over two-thirds of the seats. Very, very few parties ever approach the magic two-thirds that lets them ignore the opposition and change the constitution, and Prime Minister and president-virtually-elect Vladimir Putin even put a positive spin on the results: “This is an optimal result which reflects the real situation in the country,” Putin, 59, said coolly. “Based on this result we can guarantee stable development of our country.” (He will be recrowned president in pro forma elections 4 March.)
OCCUPY WALL STREET IS ONE STEP AWAY FROM A FOURTH REICH GULAG: THEN WHO GOES NEXT?
IronBoltBruce
Global Revolution 1: American Revolution 2: Day 83: Communication 1 IronBoltBruce's Kleptocracy Chronicles for 8 Dec 2011 (g1a2d0083c1) Will you go quietly like the Jews, or make a stand against Fascism?
Section 1031 of the National Defense Authorization Act (S.1867/H.R.1540) as currently worded (see text below) authorizes the President to use Military Force to detain indefinitely and without trial persons who engage in belligerent acts or are part of or support forces engaged in "hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners": http://tinyurl.com/c4w2wdh
Obama and Israel’s security
By Alan Hart
If American election campaign funders who support Israel right or wrong formed a circle and demanded that President Obama stand naked in the middle of it while they sang Hava Nagila (“Let us rejoice”), I am sure he would agree to do so. That thought came into my mind when I read the Reuters’ report, published in Ha’aretz, of what Obama said to a group of fundraisers in the Manhattan home of Jack Rosen, chairman of the American Jewish Congress.
Then, as my imagination let rip, I imagined Obama thinking to himself, while he was naked and they were rejoicing, something like, “Thank God they didn’t demand that I bombed Iran as the price of their money and votes.”
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