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The Great Transformation: From the Welfare State to the Imperial Police State
James Petras
Introduction
The United States has experienced the biggest political upheaval in its recent history: the transformation of a burgeoning welfare state into a rapidly expanding, highly intrusive and deeply entrenched police state, linked to the most developed technological innovations.
The ‘Great Transformation’ occurred exclusively from above, organized by the upper echelons of the civil and military bureaucracy under the direction of the Executive and his National Security Council. The ‘Great Transformation’ was not a single event but a process of the accumulation of powers, via executive fiats, supported and approved by compliant Congressional leaders. At no time in the recent and distant past has this nation witnessed the growth of such repressive powers and the proliferation of so many policing agencies engaged in so many areas of life over such a prolonged period of time (a time of virtually no internal mass dissent). Never has the executive branch of government secured so many powers to detain, interrogate, kidnap and assassinate its own citizens without judicial restraint.
Who is the winner of sanctions game?
Kourosh Ziabari
Less than a week ago, the European Union put into effect its comprehensive oil embargo against Iran upon which the member states had reached an agreement on January 23.
The EU's unilateral sanctions come after the United States targeted Iran with a set of sanctions against the country's Central Bank and a number of individuals and companies and threatened to penalize the foreign firms and banks which have financial transactions with Iranian counterparts.
World Economies on Life Support
by Stephen Lendman
Since crisis economic conditions erupted in fall 2007, resolution has been sorely lacking.
US corporations and America's super-rich benefitted from over $3 trillion in tax cuts.
Anywhere from $9 trillion to double or triple that amount went to bankers that caused the crisis.
Ordinary Americans have been largely left out. The nation's economic engine stalled. Recovery is more illusion than reality. Increasingly it looks dangerously troubled. More on that below.
Financial analyst Martin Weiss said he's "never seen anything like the whirlwinds and dark clouds now encircling the so-called advanced economies of the world."
Is Syria Worth World War III?
By Timothy V. Gatto
The question of Syria’s problems resulting in a nuclear holocaust is real, not imagined. According to the NATO treaty the treaty states that an attack on a NATO member is regarded as an attack on all NATO members.
“By joining NATO you receive the protection of The Alliance in exchange for your willing defense in times of need. An attack against one NATO member is an attack against all of NATO”. (http://cybernations.wikia.com/wiki/North_Atlantic_Treaty_Organization)
Washington's Man in Tripoli
by Stephen Lendman
Mahmoud Jabril takes over as Libya's new leader. He heads its puppet government.
Sham elections installed him. The process was farcical. Illusion substituted for reality. Obama called his ascension "another milestone in the country's transition to democracy."
EU leaders hailed "Libya's first free elections." They called them the "dawn of a new era." Scoundrel media acclaimed the end of the Gaddafi nightmare.
A democratic facade masks New World Order neoliberal fundamentalism. Its holy trinity is eliminating public services, predatory capitalism writ large, and repression enforcing the message to non-believers.
We The People - What Does That Really Mean Today
Larry Pinkney
"Tell no lies, claim no easy victories." - Amilcar Cabral
The U.S. Declaration of Independence (including its Preamble) and the U.S. Constitution, though egregiously deficient with regards to the rights of Indigenous Native people, Black people, and women, etc., were important steps toward embracing and enhancing the spirit of vigilance in the fight against government tyranny. However, and most especially, within the past twelve years in the United States, adherence to and respect for, the letter and constitutional spirit of the ongoing centuries-old fight against tyranny - has been almost totally disemboweled by the corporate / military regimes of George W. Bush and subsequently that of Barack Obama.
U.S. corporate-government tyranny and de facto economic, political, judicial, and physical terrorism against everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation is now the order of the day. It is the current daily 21st century reality of life in this U.S. republic.
International Law Revisionism
by Stephen Lendman
In January 2012, Netanyahu appointed a three-member committee headed by former Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy.
Included were former Foreign Ministry legal adviser Alan Baker and former Tel Aviv District Court president Tchia Shapira.
They examined three issues:
(1) Legal aspects of Israel's occupation.
(2) The 2005 Sasson Report's conclusion that dozens of outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land were illegal.
(3) Whether Israel's presence in the West Bank is, or is not, an occupation.
Levy's report rewrote international law. It claimed that occupation "as set out in the relevant international conventions cannot be considered applicable to the unique and sui generis historic and legal circumstances of Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria spanning over decades."
Before the Collapse
By Timothy v. Gatto
A few observations:
1. The Media is controlled by the government and most of what you see and hear from it is a lie.
2. The United States is engaged in wars all over the planet for resources.
3. Sociopaths run our government.
4. The U.S. government is attempting to destroy our basic civil liberties to consolidate their power.
5. The Bankers are stealing America’s wealth.
6. Our economy in America is collapsing.
7. Anyone that is critical of the current policies is considered to be mentally ill, a malcontent or a “terrorist”.
8. The U.S. is in an economic depression.
9. There is no difference between the Democrats and Republicans.
10. (Most importantly) Many people understand what is going on (and the numbers are growing larger every day) and the government of the USA had no idea this would come so swiftly.
Hillary Clinton, Queen of Hearts
By Michael Collins
(Washington, DC 7/11/12) Hillary Clinton has a very serious problem. She thinks that she runs the world and that those who disobey her must be punished, China and Russia in particular. Our chief diplomat behaves like a drunken bully, makes rash demands, and spoils for a fight with countries that can do some serious damage. (Image: Sascha W)
Over what? Regime change in Syria. Clinton is the tip of the spear for the project to control the Arab Spring movement. Her efforts have little to do with democracy. It is about controlling the agenda in the oil rich Middle East and the effort to prop up the decadent Saudis royals and other oil rich leaders hiding behind a nebulous organization called the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Modern crusade against Muslims
Kourosh Ziabari
Despite constituting a significant minority in the western countries, Muslims around the world are subject to disproportionate, unjustifiable bias. Such attitudes distance them from their most fundamental social rights by portraying them as extremists and fanatics. The group is represented as able to endanger the interests of Europe and America.
As reported by the German Central Institute Islam Archive, there are 53 million Muslims living in Europe (excluding Turkey) who represent some 7.2% of the continent's population. According to a Pew Research Center 2011 demographic study, globally Islam has 1.6 billion adherents, making up 23% of the world's population.
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