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Election Results in Germany
Stephen Lendman
Angela Merkel’s fourth term as chancellor was marred by the rise of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, winning 13% of the vote on Sunday, entering parliament for the first time post-WW II.
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) alliance got only 33% of the vote, its worst showing since 1949 - compared to 41.5% in 2013.
Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SDP) finished second with 20.5%, a post-WW II low. Putting a brave face on her party’s dismal result, Merkel said “(w)e are the strongest party. We we have the mandate to build the next government, and there cannot be a coalition government built against us.”
Nearly half of German voters rejected the two major parties, dominating the country’s politics since WW II.
“Bernie is the most honest person in the Senate” Says Senator Lindsey Graham
Eric Zuesse
In the CNN Town Hall debate between Senators Bernie Sanders and Lindsey Graham (plus Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Bill Cassidy) that was telecast on Monday evening September 25th (see the transcript of it here), the Republican Senators Graham and Cassidy were unable to discredit anything that Sanders said against their Graham-Cassidy Republican healthcare bill in the Senate, but instead they attacked Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act). Sanders said, regarding that attack, “Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water” and received the biggest applause yet in the debate. Immediately after this, someone in the audience addressed Klobuchar and noted that President Obama had lied about what Obamacare would do (lower premium-costs, allow keeping one’s existing insurance policy, etc.), and Senator Klobuchar said that those are the reasons Obamacare needs to be fixed. She was of the Hillary Clinton frame of mind.
Russia Warns Washington
Stephen Lendman
Russia is committed to free Syria from the scourge of terrorism Washington supports - a noble mission deserving universal support.
On Thursday, the Kremlin said “Russia has officially informed the United States via a special communications channel that Russian forces will strike immediately US-backed forces if they attack or shell Syrian or Russian task forces operating near the Deir Ezzor city.”
“Any attempts at shelling from the areas where the militants of the Syrian Democratic Forces are based will be immediately curbed. Russian forces will suppress firing points in these areas using all means of destruction.”
Hurricanes Maria and Jose
Stephen Lendman
On Tuesday, Maria was elevated to Category 5. Meteorologist Eric Holthaus called it “one of the fastest intensifying hurricanes in history with maximum sustained winds of 160 MPH.”
Jose is minor by comparison, forecast to remain off the US northeast coast. At most “(m)inor to moderate coastal flooding is possible from Delaware to southern New England during the next several days,” according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), its maximum sustained winds at around 75 MPH.
Maria is hugely dangerous, the strongest ever storm to hit Dominica, devastating the island, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit saying:
“So far we have lost all what money can buy and replace. My greatest fear for the morning is that we will wake to news of serious physical injury and possible deaths as a result of likely landslides triggered by persistent rains.”
“(W)inds have swept away the roofs of almost every person I have spoken to or otherwise made contact with. The roof to my own official residence was among the first to go and this apparently triggered an avalanche of torn away roofs in the city and the countryside.”
Trump Again Threatens Venezuela
Stephen Lendman
On Monday evening in New York, Trump threatened Venezuela at a dinner he hosted for hardline right-wing Latin American officials.
Ones invited included Brazil’s coup d’etat president Michel Temer, Colombian narco-terrorist president Juan Manuel Santos, corporatist Panamanian president Juan Carlos Varela, and fascist Argentine president Mauricio Macri’s vice president Gabriela Michetti, along with their foreign ministers and other officials.
The situation in Venezuela is “totally unacceptable,” Trump roared, adding: “We call for the full restoration of democracy and political freedoms in Venezuela, and we want it to happen very, very soon.”
He threatened unspecified actions he intends, earlier threatening “a possible military option.” He disgracefully accused President Nicolas Maduro of “def(ing) his own people,” calling his leadership “disastrous,” suggesting further hostile US actions coming.
The Nation I grew Up in No Longer Exists
Stephen Lendman
America was never beautiful, but the way things were during my early years was world’s different from today’s dismal and hugely dangerous state.
Long ago, I felt safe and secure, unlike today, threatened by bipartisan lunatics in Washington, waging endless wars of aggression, deploring peace and stability, maybe willing to risk destroying planet earth to own it.
As a child and youth, I never feared dreaded nuclear war. Today it’s more likely than not against other nuclear powers threatening no one, standing in the way of America achieving unchallenged dominance, wanting all sovereign independent states eliminated, doing whatever it takes to accomplish this madness, wanting planet earth colonized, controlled and exploited.
America has an obscenely powerful military at a time its only enemies are invented ones, no real ones, none since WW II’s end.
The US public is deplorably ignorant and indifferent to the diabolical agenda of the nation’s leadership - the same under both right wings of its duopoly government, hellbent to rule the world, most Americans none the wiser, brainwashed by political and television talking heads.
Gallup: 71% of Americans are “Dissatisfied with the way the nation is being governed”
Eric Zuesse
A Gallup poll headlined on September 17th, "Seven in 10 Dissatisfied With Way U.S. Is Being Governed”, and reported that 71% said they were “Dissatisfied" and that 28% said they were “Satisfied,” with the U.S. Government. The question, as it had been posed, was “On the whole, would you say you are satisfied or dissatisfied with the way the nation is being governed?”
At the height of Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, when this question was asked during 21-24 September 1973, the until-then all-time-lowest level of satisfaction with the Government was recorded, 26% (compared with 28% who are “Satisfied” today); but, at that time, only 66% said they were outright “Dissatisfied”; so, at that time, a larger percentage than now, were on the fence, about this question. (Thus, 71% are “Dissatisfied” today, whereas only 66% were, back in 1973.) Subsequently, the figure of only 26% who were “Satisfied,” wasn’t reached again until the very end of George W. Bush’s Presidency and the peak of the 2008 economic crash, when, yet again, 26% were “Satisfied”; but, in that instance, an until-then all-time-record high 72% declared themselves “Dissatisfied” with their Government. So, that was the all-time-worst finding, up to that moment in time. But, then, things got even worse:
UN General Assembly’s 72nd Session
Stephen Lendman
UNGA 72 convened on September 12. The General Debate runs from September 19 - 25, featuring addresses by top officials of memer states.
Sergey Lavrov head’s Russia’s delegation. On September 21, he’ll address the GA. He’ll meet with numerous leaders and other officials from attending countries, along with US-appointed General-Secretary Antonio Guterres.
He’ll present Russia’s anti-imperial, anti-war, multi-polarity worldview, supporting “unconditional respect for the sovereignty and the rights of nations to choose their own way,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova explained.
He’ll call for strict “adherence to the principle of supremacy of international law and the UN Charter, as well as the Charter prerogatives of the UN Security Council, which bears primary responsibility for international peace and security,” she stressed.
Trump’s UN Reform Declaration
Stephen Lendman
Putin wasn’t invited to Trump’s UN reform meeting, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov explained, convened ahead of the General Assembly’s 72nd session, an unacceptable snub.
A handful of countries alone got to participate, ones willing to sign Trump’s 10-point plan. Upper house Federation Council Defense and Security Committee First Deputy head Franz Klintsevich called his proposal “a diktat rather than a discussion,” adding:
“I cannot really judge if UN reform is timely at the moment, and whether it may cause bigger disputes among countries. Those are, so to say, issues of a different layer, but anyway this is not the way to address them.”
His draft declaration states “(w)e support the secretary-general in making concrete changes in the United Nations system to better align its work on humanitarian response, development and sustaining peace initiatives.”
“We commit to reducing mandate duplication, redundancy and overlap, including among the main organs of the United Nations.”
He wants America’s funding commitment cut, other countries paying more. As of September 18, 128 nations signed his declaration, most pressured to go along or risk US wrath.
US Anti-BDS Legislation
Stephen Lendman
Global BDS activism is vital - the most effective initiative challenging Israeli ruthlessness, essential to preserve and support.
Congressional Israel Anti-Boycott Act legislation wants it criminalized. It aims to “amend the Export Administration Act of 1979 to include in the prohibitions on boycotts against allies of the United States boycotts fostered by international governmental organizations against Israel and to direct the Export-Import Bank of the United States to oppose boycotts against Israel, and for other purposes.”
Its key provisions include:
Congressional opposition to BDS.
Calling UNHCR criticism of Israel support for BDS, notably its March 2016 blacklist of companies operating in Occupied Palestine on stolen land.
Expanding the Export Administration Act (EAA), prohibiting involvement with any foreign government’s boycott of Israel.
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