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Immigration: No Easy Answers
James Petras
Introduction
The cross border flood of millions of immigrants provokes profound political divisions, violence and the rise of mass movements challenging the unity of the European Union (EU) and the survival of the dominant political parties in the US and Europe.
Both the progressive pro-immigrant and rightwing anti-immigration parties and movements propose easy answers and attack their adversaries with political invective.
Both left and right engage in a losing war, based on historical omissions, abstract and muddle-headed assumptions and destructive proposals.
I will proceed by outlining a framework to understand the political, economic and security implications, which form the centerpiece for confronting immigration.
The NYT Downplays Indiscriminate US Mass Slaughter of Civilians
Stephen Lendman
On Saturday, Turkey’s Anadolu (news) Agency cited Iraqi General Thaer Mosawi, saying over 22,000 Mosul residents were wounded since US-orchestrated combat operations began last October, based on hospital admissions - nearly 4,000 killed since mid-February alone.
Civilians able to flee the city to relative safety report high noncombatant casualties - people as terrified by US terror-bombing as ISIS.
This information flies in the face of Pentagon reports and supportive media scoundrels - ignoring or downplaying ongoing horrors.
Mosul is being systematically raped and destroyed on the phony pretext of liberating the city from ISIS control. Most of its area fighters were relocated to Syria, America and its allies aiding them, using them as imperial foot soldiers, along with other terrorist groups.
In reporting on endless US aggression, The New York Times and other media scoundrels function as virtual Pentagon press agent.
Millions in US War Theaters Face Starvation
Stephen Lendman
According to the ICRC, about 20 million people in Yemen and Somalia face starvation without vitally needed food aid, mostly not forthcoming, saying:
“This is not business as usual.” Crisis conditions in both countries need to be addressed “now.” Cholera “on the rise in Somalia (alone is killing about) 20 people…each day.”
US drone war takes a horrendous toll. Obama’s war in Yemen, complicit with Riyadh, now Trump’s war, took a horrendous toll on civilians for the past two years.
Reporting on years of covert US war on Somalia, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism said elite US troops are involved in “surveillance, reconnaissance, and assault and capture operations,” including devastating drone war, mostly harming civilians.
The CIA operates secretly from Mogadishu airport. In recent years, Kenyan and Ethiopian forces invaded parts of the country, serving as US proxies. A virtually unreported war OF terror remains ongoing.
Oxfam reported “millions on the brink of starvation” in east Africa, Yemen, and northeast Nigeria - “an unprecedented and devastating food crisis” largely unaddressed.
Inventing Reasons to Bash Russia
Stephen Lendman
Washington remains hostile toward Russia for its sovereign independence.
Along with China, it’s an obstacle to America’s aim for unchallenged global dominance. Both countries are formidable nuclear powers, giving bipartisan US hawks pause about engaging either militarily.
It doesn’t stop them from fabricating reasons to bash them, America’s failed Afghan war the latest example.
On Thursday, US NATO commander General Curtis Scaparrotti lied to Senate Armed Services Committee members, saying:
“I’ve seen the influence of Russia of late - increased influence in terms of association and perhaps even supply to the Taliban,” providing no evidence backing his spurious allegations.
US Intends Illegal Safe Zones in Imperial War Theaters
Stephen Lendman
Addressing members of America’s imperial war coalition in Washington Wednesday, Rex Tillerson said Washington intends establishing “interim zones of stability” in Syria and Iraq - without further elaboration.
US-installed Iraqi puppet leader Haider al-Abadi was pressured to let US forces operate in Iraqi territory.
He’s silent on relentless Pentagon terror-bombing, massacring Mosul civilians, ones escaping saying they fear US warplanes as much as ISIS.
Pentagon special forces and marines in Syria are “invaders,” operating illegally, Bashar al-Assad explained. They’re aiding anti-government terrorists pursue US regime change plans.
No-fly or safe zones in foreign countries are illegal without Security Council authorization - not forthcoming with near certain Russian and likely Chinese veto power. US pressure will likely get Abadi to go along. If not, expect a new puppet leader installed to replace him.
John Podesta Linked to State-Run Russian Company
Stephen Lendman
It should be a non-issue. Doing business in Russia and most other countries is legal, nothing out-of-the-ordinary about it unless laws are broken.
It matters for Podesta because Trump is irresponsibly bashed for alleged ties to Russian investors, banks and officials - besides fabricated claims of Moscow US election hacking, helping him defeat Hillary. Reportedly he explored Moscow real estate development deals never successfully concluded.
He had dealings with numerous individuals in Russia since the late 1980s. It’s common business practice engaged in by most large, medium, and smaller-sized firms - nothing unusual or illegal about it, nothing justifying bashing him for it.
On Tuesday, an “exclusive” Daily Caller report headlined “Podesta Was Board Member of Firms Linked to Russian Investors,” saying:
Texas House Republican Louie Gohmert wants Congress investigating Podesta for his “role with Rusnano, a state-run company founded by Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
If Democrats can target Trump, unjustifiably claiming improper ties to Russia, despite no credible proof, Republicans can play the same game.
Michael Moore: Anti-Trump Coup Supporter
Stephen Lendman
His irrational anti-Trump rage lost him credibility months ago. He’s either deranged, a Democrat party plant, funded by Trump-hating extremists like Soros, prematurely senile, or all of the above.
Throughout last year’s presidential campaign, he openly supported war criminal, racketeer, perjurer Hillary. After her defeat, he called for her to be installed as president anyway.
Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, he urged disrupting it - wanting it “block(ed), obstruct(ed),” and otherwise interfered with to prevent him from becoming president.
He tried bribing Republican electors to defect, saying “(i)f you vote your conscience…and your state fines you…I will pay your fine.”
After Trump’s inauguration, he called for him to “vacate” his office. In mid-February, he tweeted “it appears you are still squatting in our Oval Office.”
“What part of ‘vacate you Russian traitor’ don’t you understand? We can do this the easy way (you resign), or the hard way (impeachment).”
China’s Great Leap Forward: Western Frogs Croak Dismay
James Petras
Introduction
From their dismal swamps, US academic and financial journal editorialists, the mass media and contemporary ‘Asia experts’, Western progressive and conservative politicians croak in unison about China’s environmental and impending collapse. They have variably proclaimed (1) China’s economy is in decline; (2) the debt is overwhelming; a Chinese real estate bubble is ready to burst; (3) the country is rife with corruption and poisoned with pollution; and (4) Chinese workers are staging paralyzing strikes and protests amid growing repression - the result of exploitation and sharp class inequality. The financial frogs croak about China as an imminent military threat to the security of the US and its Asian partners. Other frogs leap for that fly in the sky - arguing that the Chinese now threatens the entire universe!
The ‘China doomsters’ with ‘logs in their own eyes’ have systematically distorted reality, fabricated whimsical tales and paint vision, which, in truth, reflect their own societies.
As each false claim is refuted, the frogs alter their tunes: When predictions of imminent collapse fail to materialize, they add a year or even a decade to their crystal ball. When their warnings of negative national social, economic and structural trends instead move in a positive direction, their nimble fingers re-calibrate the scope and depth of the crisis, citing anecdotal ‘revelations’ from some village or town or taxi driver conversation.
As long-predicted failures fail to materialize, the experts re-hash the data by questioning the reliability of China’s official statistics.
US Terror-Bombing Massacres Civilians
Stephen Lendman
US terror-bombing in the battle for Mosul has nothing to do with liberating the city, everything to with destroying it.
A similar strategy is employed in Syria, smashing vital infrastructure on the phony pretext of combating ISIS.
America created and/or supports terrorist groups in both countries and elsewhere - waging war OF terror, not on it.
Civilians in harm’s way are being indiscriminately massacred, residential neighborhoods turned to rubble, terror-bombing burying entire families beneath the wreckage of their homes - media scoundrels ignoring high crimes demanding accountability.
Last week’s mosque bombing in western Aleppo province slaughtered over four dozen worshipers, injured many more. Pentagon authorities lied, claiming an al-Qaeda structure was targeted, not a mosque. Its rubble and death toll proved otherwise.
Russia Combats Terrorists America Supports
Stephen Lendman
Russia’s agenda is polar opposite America’s. It’s effectively combating terrorists in Syria.
The dynamic on the ground dramatically changed after it intervened in September 2015 at Assad’s request.
America created and supports ISIS, al-Nusra and other terrorist groups - why they exist. Washington feeds the monster it claims to oppose.
Trump seamlessly continues the agenda his predecessors began - notably the Clintons, Bush/Cheney and Obama.
So-called US war on terror is a made-for-media fabricated hoax. Last September, RT quoted an al-Nusra (al-Qaeda in Syria) commander saying:
“Yes, the US supports” anti-government fighters in Syria. Washington “support(s) the countries that support us.”
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