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Senator Lindsey Graham is an Idiot
Michael Collins
CNN interviewed Senator Lindsey Graham (R ) of South Carolina on the propriety of continuing to fly the Confederate flag in front of the state capitol. Many have called on the state to take down the flag as a show of respect for the nine victims of alleged killer Dylann Storm Roof, the 22 year old killer with a clear affinity for the flag and other racist symbols. Graham’s responses are telling. (Image: AK Rockefeller)
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN: Is it time to stop flying the Confederate flag?
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well, at the end of the day, it’s time for the people of South Carolina to revisit that decision, would be fine with me but this is part of who we are.” CNN, June 20
What could Graham mean by “this is part of who we are”? Is he referring to the people of South Carolina. Blacks comprise 30% of the state’s population. The Confederate flag is hardly who they are. Is he referring to the state’s white majority? Do all white South Carolinians think of the flag as who they are?
Syriza: Plunder, Pillage and Prostration (How the ‘Hard Left’ embraces the policies of the Hard Right)
James Petras
Introduction
Greece has been in the headlines of the world’s financial press for the past five months, as a newly elected leftist party, ‘Syriza’, which ostensibly opposes so-called ‘austerity measures’, faces off against the “Troika” (International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and European Central Bank).
Early on, the Syriza leadership, headed by Alexis Tsipras, adopted several strategic positions with fatal consequences - in terms of implementing their electoral promises to raise living standards, end vassalage to the ‘Troika’ and pursue an independent foreign policy.
We will proceed by outlining the initial systemic failures of Syriza and the subsequent concessions further eroding Greek living standards and deepening Greece’s role as an active collaborator of US and Israeli imperialism.
Irresponsible US Iran Bashing
by Stephen Lendman
Continuing P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran don't suggest Washington wants normalized relations after 36 years of hostility.
The State Department's just released 2014 Country Reports on Terrorism offers more proof. It excludes the world's two most egregious state sponsors of terrorism above all others - America and Israel.
Instead, it absurdly calls the Jewish state "a committed counterterrorism partner" and lists nonexistent threats to its security - including from Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon's Hezbollah. It features Cuba (no longer wrongfully designated since May 29, 2015), North Korea, Sudan, Syria and Iran. It blames Syria's Bashar al-Assad for defending his nation against US-imported Islamic State and other takfiri terrorist groups.
It unjustly accuses him of their mass murder, chemical weapons attacks and other atrocities. It ignores Washington's longstanding regime change plans - ongoing belligerently since Obama launched proxy war in March 2011, naked aggression against an independent country threatening no one.
Thousands in Britain Rally Against Austerity
by Stephen Lendman
Force-fed austerity in Britain, America and elsewhere is a thinly veiled wealth transference scheme - from ordinary people to super-rich ones already with too much, including benefitting war profiteers by waging endless conflicts.
The dirty scheme is grand theft by other means - robbing poor Peter to pay rich Paul, corrupt politicians profiting at the same time they betray their constituents.
The People's Assembly sponsored Saturday's mass protest. It calls itself "a broad united national campaign against austerity" decimating social justice in Britain. It's slogan is "END AUSTERITY NOW." It's Manifesto states: "There is no need for ANY cuts to public spending; no need to decimate public services; no need for unemployment or pay and pension cuts; no need for Austerity and privatisation. There IS an alternative."
"We need a government to reverse damaging austerity, and replace it with a new set of policies providing us with a fair, sustainable and secure future."
Thousands in St. Petersburg Defy US Sanctions
by Stephen Lendman
A previous article discussed the opening of the 19th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) - an annual three-day event attracting thousands of participants.
They include world political and business leaders, journalists and others from dozens of countries worldwide - including from China, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, South Korea and America.
They came despite US sanctions and ones Washington bullied EU countries to impose. Around 1,000 companies confirmed their participation - including 440 from Europe, Asia and America. They came to finalize deals worth hundreds of billions of rubles.
Top executives from Boeing, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase International, Societe Generale, Siemens, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Philip Morris International, McKinsey & Company, Enel, Pirelli, Schlumberger, Amsted Rail, Austria's UniCredit Bank, and TPG capital arrived among others - despite Washington pressuring Western companies not to attend.
Hillary Clinton Backs Fast-Track on Obama’s Trade Deals
Eric Zuesse
On Sunday, June 14th, Hillary Clinton came out publicly for the first time in support of President Obama’s trade-deals — TPP with Asia, TTIP with Europe, and on TISA with all nations to lower the standards on banking and insurance and to privatize government services.
What’s at issue in Congress right now — and thus what she was responding to — is whether or not to grant U.S. President Barack Obama the “Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority,” which will produce expedited passage for his trade-deals; the trade-deals themselves are not even before Congress yet, and have not even been made public, though the first one up for consideration will be TPP with Asia; but that deal, like the others, will virtually certainly go down to defeat unless the President first wins “Fast Track,” which is the issue now.
The reason “Fast Track” is the issue now before Congress, is that it's actually the only feasible way for Obama to be able to win congressional passage of TPP or of any of his big-three trade-deals. It’s crucial because it reduces the Constitutionally required two-thirds of Senators voting for a given trade-deal, down to merely 50% of Senators (plus VP Joe Biden) needed to vote for it, in order for the deal to become U.S. law — and there is no way possible for this Senate to vote two-thirds for either TPP with Asia, TTIP with Europe, or TISA for “Services.” But 50% can safely be assured (especially with the gargantuan political-campaign donations that are pouring into Congress to back it).
NATO Lies to NPR
Eric Zuesse
On June 17th, U.S. National Public Radio (NPR) interviewed NATO’s and America’s General Ben Hodges, who is the Commanding General of the U.S. Army in Europe, which is "NATO's most senior land forces command.” He said (after 4:54 in the audio):
“This notion that somehow, Russia, you know, has no choice but to respond or that the West is being provocative, really, I don’t think rings true at all. … We’re building up on NATO’s borders. These are NATO countries, these are allies of ours, that are concerned based on what Russia is doing on their borders, and they’ve asked for assurance that their allies are there.”
The interviewer asked, “President Putin said that only an insane person could imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO. I mean, is NATO insane for worrying about a Russian attack?” Hodges replied (6:41):
Kiev's Junta Forces Terror Bomb Donbass
by Stephen Lendman
Kiev war crimes include using banned chemical weapons, cluster bombs and white phosphorous in Donbass - including against civilian neighborhoods.
Reports indicate US experts are helping Ukraine produce chemical weapons for use against rebel forces. Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) intelligence learned they're being secretly developed for escalated dirty war.
On Tuesday, reported fuel-air (thermobaric) explosives targeted a Donetsk chemical plant - fired from junta held Kurahhovo village 30 kilometers away.
These weapons suck oxygen from open areas and human lungs. They generate intense, high-temperature explosions. They're much more destructive than conventional explosives of equal weight - especially when used against people in bunkers, shelters, caves and other enclosed places.
Irresponsibly Freezing Russian Assets
by Stephen Lendman
French and Belgian Russian asset freezes along with extending EU sanctions through January came (not coincidentally) on day one of the 19th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
It's an impressive annual three-day event attracting thousands of participants - including world political and business leaders, journalists and others from dozens of countries worldwide.
The Forum's web site states:
"SPIEF gathers the leading decision-makers of the emerging economic powers to identify and deliberate the key challenges facing Russia, emerging markets, and the world at large, while engaging communities to find common purpose and establish frameworks to forge solutions which will drive the growth and stability agenda."
Vladimir Putin welcomed participants calling SPIEF "a platform for candid discussions to be held on a wide range of economic, financial and social issues, with long-term contracts and agreements being concluded on the sidelines."
Manufacturing Nonexistent Putin War on Ukraine
by Stephen Lendman
America, rogue EU partners and their go-along scoundrel media propaganda machine can't stop beating a dead horse. Big Lies persist ad nauseam.
The whole world knows Russia didn't invade Ukraine. It's not waging war against any nation. It's not supplying Donbass freedom fighters with weapons or other military support.
It's the continent's leading proponent of peace and stability. It shames America's rage for endless wars of aggression against invented enemies.
Throughout months of conflict in Ukraine, Russia more than any other nation has gone all-out to resolve it diplomatically. No one more deserves Nobel Peace Prize recognition than Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov.
War criminals like Obama win most often. Peace champions are systematically shunned.
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