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Canada and Mexico to Join U.S. in NAFTA of the Pacific
By Dana Gabriel
At the recent APEC meetings, Canada and Mexico announced their interest in joining the U.S., along with other countries already engaged in negotiations to establish what has been referred to as the NAFTA of the Pacific.
The leaders of the nine countries that are part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hawaii and agreed on the broad outlines of a free trade agreement. The current members include the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Peru and Chile. The TPP has been hailed as a, “landmark, 21st-century trade agreement, setting a new standard for global trade and incorporating next-generation issues.” Key features of the TPP are that it would provide comprehensive market access and be a fully regional agreement designed to facilitate the development of production and supply chains. Various working groups have been discussing issues such as financial services, government procurement, intellectual property, investment, rules of origin, telecommunications and trade remedies. The next round of talks will take place in December and there are hopes of concluding negotiations before the end of 2012. Apart from Canada and Mexico, Japan has also expressed interest in being part of the TPP. The door is also open for other countries to join which is why many consider it to be a building block for an Asia-Pacific free trade zone.
Target Syria
by Stephen Lendman
Washington's Greater Middle East project involves waring against the region one country at a time to replace independent regimes with client ones.
Softer targets were attacked first. Tougher ones remain, notably Iran and Syria. Subduing them may involve turning the entire region into an uncontrollable cauldron, not least because China and Russia have interests to defend.
Russia maintains a strategic naval base at Tartus, Syria, its only Mediterranean location. It considers it vital protection for its Black Sea Fleet. It's being modernized to accommodate heavy warships after 2012. Russia came to stay.
Medvedev's Nov. 23 Address to the Nation: A Stark, Measured Statement of The Grave Strategic Reality
by larouchepac.com
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's November 23 televised address to the nation conveyed the stark reality that the Russian leadership anticipates the outbreak of global nuclear war, and is determined both to defend Russia under those circumstances and, by warning of this, to try to deter it. Reported by wire services was Medvedev's threat to deploy the Iskander missile system in Russia's westernmost district of Kaliningrad, in response to the U.S./NATO emplacement of anti-ballistic missile systems in Europe. In fact, the address to the nation contained his announcement of other crucial actions. The ten-minute address is available with English subtitles on the Kremlin site, at http://eng.news.kremlin.ru/video/1034 [1]. It is extremely valuable to watch, for an appreciation of current strategic reality. Medvedev spoke from his Presidential office, flanked by the Russian tricolor flag in its version for the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, with the Russian double-headed eagle crest.
Lauren Booth: Three people in this marriage. The PSC, the JC and Harry’s Place
By Gilad Atzmon
This week, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has revealed itself to be ethically compromised at the highest level.
In recent months it has become clear that the central office of the PSC, are increasingly pandering to the whims of Israeli hasbara activists. Joining with the likes of the rabid Zionist site Harry’s Place in efforts to silence some of this movement’s most outspoken and popular, thinkers.
This week, Sarah Colborne, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was quoted in the pro Israeli paper, the Jewish Chronicle, as supporting a boycott of the highly renowned musician and academic Gilad Atzmon. Atzmon was booked to perform in his professional capacity as a saxaphonist at an event celebrating political song in Bradford, called 'Raise your Banners.' The musician/author has recently published his best selling treatise on Jewish cultural identity called ‘The Wondering Who’. A work that, unlike Sarah Colborne, I have actually read, and can highly recommend, as it pulls no punches, when asking to what degree the racist idealogy - Zionism, when mixed with the Jewish sense of ‘Choseness’, is to blame for the existence of todays Apartheid Israel. It has been endorsed by some of the finest thinkers and writers on Israel/Palestine of our age.
Indefinite Domestic Military Detentions
by Stephen Lendman
Congress is now considering legislative language to mandate indefinite military detentions of US citizens suspected of present or past associations with alleged terrorist groups, with or without evidence to prove it. More on that below.
The 2006 Military Commissions Act authorized torture and sweeping unconstitutional powers to detain, interrogate, and prosecute alleged suspects and collaborators (including US citizens), hold them (without evidence) indefinitely in military prisons, and deny them habeas and other constitutional protections.
Section 1031 of the FY 2010 Defense Authorization Act contained the 2009 Military Commissions Act (MCA). The phrase "unprivileged enemy belligerent" replaced "unlawful enemy combatant."
The New Authoritarianism: From Decaying Democracies to Technocratic Dictatorships and Beyond
James Petras
Introduction
We live in a time of dynamic, regressive, regime changes. A period in which major political transformations and the dramatic roll back of a half century of socio-economic legislation are accelerated by a prolonged and deepening economic crises and a world-wide financier led offensive. This essay explores major ongoing regime changes that have a profound impact on governance, the class structures, economic institutions, political freedom and national sovereignty. We delineate a two-stage process of political regression. The first stage involves the transition from a decaying democracy to an oligarchical democracy; the second stage currently unfolding in Europe involves the transition from oligarchical democracy to colonial-technocratic dictatorship. We will identify the specific features of each regime focusing on the specific conditions and socio-economic forces behind each “transition”. We will proceed to clarify the key concepts, their operative meaning: specifically the nature and dynamics of “decaying democracies” (DD), oligarchical democracies (OD) and “colonial technocratic dictatorship” (CTD).
No to Co-Option: MoveOn is the Opposite of the Occupy Movement
By Kevin Zeese
MoveOn’s History of Undermining Progressive Causes in Support of the Corporate-Dominated Democratic Party
While most of the comments about my articleon Van Jones and our GeneralAssembly's call for independence from the Democratic Party and Democratic Party front groups were positive, a few people don't seem to know the history of MoveOn.
Please do not misunderstand my criticisms of MoveOn and other organizations in this article as criticism of the many good people in these organizations. We have some people from MoveOn and other groups working with us at Occupy Washington, DC. It is the leadership of these groups that misdirects people into the Democratic Party, supporting Democratic candidates and weak and often counterproductive Democratic Party positions. We welcome MoveOn members to the Occupy Movement, but we do not want their leadership misdirecting the movement into the Democratic Party which is dominated by Wall Street and other big business interests.
Israel: Profile of a Rogue State
by Stephen Lendman
Rogue states spurn international law, treaties, conventions, and in Israel's case its own laws and Supreme Court decisions.
Daily examples offer proof, including from Ahmed el-Helah and Mariam Itani's new book titled, "The Suffering of the Palestinian Child under the Israeli Occupation," saying:
Over a million Palestinian children "live and suffer every moment of their lives under the painful reality of occupation."
Growing numbers are killed, injured, maimed, handicapped, arrested, imprisoned, and tortured. Most are impoverished and many hungry.
Spreading Eurozone Contagion
by Stephen Lendman
The operative word is contagion. It's malignant and spreading because it's unresolved and irresponsibly addressed.
Germany, Europe's strongest economy, just had its worst ever bond auction since 1999. Over a third of 10-year bunds offered were unsold. More on the failure below.
Comparable Italian yields jumped to 7.3%. Italy's two-year bond hit 7.7%. The inverted curve signals tougher times ahead. Italy also sold six-month bills at 6.50%, its highest rate in 14 years.
Troubled Spain had to pay 5.11% for three-month money, the highest short-term rate since formation of Europe's Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in 1999.
Other Eurozone rates also rose, including Portugal's after Fitch downgraded its debt to junk and retained a negative outlook. Hungary was downgraded to junk as well with a negative outlook. Yields there jumped close to 10%. Belgium's in trouble. So are France and Britain. Credit default swaps on European sovereign debt and banks reached all-time highs.
Rage for Change in Egypt
by Stephen Lendman
Tantawi
Last February, Egyptians celebrated Hosni Mubarak's ouster. He became an obstacle to Washington's Middle East agenda and had to go.
For years, State Department and Pentagon officials wanted him out for opposing key US policies, including Iran's nuclear program and Bush's 2003 Iraq war.
A military junta replaced him, headed by Field Marshall Mohammed Hussein Tantawi. He's a powerful old regime stalwart with close ties to Washington. However, US diplomats call him "aged and change-resistant." Notably, he opposes economic and political reform that conflicts with military rule.
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