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Infrastructure Sticker Shock: Financing Costs More than Construction
Ellen Brown
Funding infrastructure through bonds doubles the price or worse. Costs can be cut in half by funding through the state’s own bank.
“The numbers are big. There is sticker shock,” said Jason Peltier, deputy manager of the Westlands Water District, describing Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to build two massive water tunnels through the California Delta. “But consider your other scenarios. How much more groundwater can we pump?”
Whether the tunnels are the best way to get water to the Delta is controversial, but the issue here is the cost. The tunnels were billed to voters as a $25 billion project. That estimate, however, omitted interest and fees. Construction itself is estimated at a relatively modest $18 billion. But financing through bonds issued at 5% for 30 years adds $24-40 billion to the tab. Another $9 billion will go to wetlands restoration, monitoring and other costs, bringing the grand total to $51-67 billion – three or four times the cost of construction.
A general rule for government bonds is that they double the cost of projects, once interest has been paid.
War on Fundamental Rights in Ukraine
by Stephen Lendman
Previous articles called it war without mercy. This writer's new book as editor and contributor explains the most significant post-WW II geopolitical crisis.
Escalating it risks global conflict. Obama bears full responsibility. Washington stops at nothing to advance its imperium.
Imagine the unthinkable. John Pilger fears Washington "threaten(s) to take the world to war." "We in the west are backing neo-Nazis in a country where Ukrainian Nazis backed Hitler," he said."(A) silent coup has taken place in Washington and rampant militarism now rules."
Ukraine is "a CIA theme park." Its operatives oversee "savage attacks" against Ukrainians wanting to live free.
Israeli Extrajudicial Assassinations
by Stephen Lendman
They're willful, premeditated cold-blooded murder. They're official Israeli policy.
Killers get impunity. Investigations rarely happen. Occasional ones are whitewashed. In May 2007, former Israeli Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said:
"We decided to carry out more physical liquidation operations against (Palestinian) 'terrorists' "
"I think this will eliminate the damage caused to Israeli territory due to the launching of Palestinian rockets."
Just cause for murder doesn't exist. Claiming otherwise rings hollow. International law is clear and unequivocal.
Did the Jews Lose Europe?
By Gilad Atzmon
Following the surge of right wing parties in Europe’s Parliamentary election, Forward, the once-progressive Jewish outlet asks, “Have the Jews Lost Europe?” The tone of this question implies that until just a few days ago, at least some Jews believed that Europe was, in part, a ‘Jewish property.’ Such views were not baseless; Jewish Lobbies have dominated British and French policies by means of aggressive lobbying (CFI, LFI, CRIF etc’).
Following the European poll, Dave Rich, deputy director of the ultra Right Wing Jewish para-military Community Security Trust, is concerned. He detects a growing resentment of Jewish politics in Europe. His article in the Forward’s openly examines whether Jews have lost their grip on the European continent.
West should reject falsification of Egyptians' will]
Khalid Amayreh
By now, it should be sufficiently clear that the coup gang in Egypt, led by Gen. Abdul Fattah Sissi, has embarked on a scandalous falsification of the Egyptian people's will.
Sissi and his puppet government had designated 26 and 27 May for voting to elect a new president following the military coup against Muhammad Mursi, the only democratically-elected president in Egypt's entire history. Sissi had no real opponents to compete with in last week's elections as the leaders of the main rival political force in the country, namely the Muslim Brotherhood, remained locked up in jail, with their party declared a terrorist group by a notoriously pliant justice system that is at the military's beck and call..
Hamdeen Sabahi, a shockingly disingenuous candidate, never posed any real challenge to Sissi. His reluctant campaign and obsequious discourse toward the coup leader, caricatured a weak and confused man whose only "qualification" was his pathological dislike of the Islamists.
The Rise of the European Right: Reaction to the Neoliberal Right
James Petras
Introduction
The European parliamentary elections witnessed a major breakthrough for the right-wing parties throughout the region. The rise of the Right runs from the Nordic countries, the United Kingdom, the Baltic and Low countries, France, Central and Eastern Europe to the Mediterranean.
Most, if not all, of these emerging right-wing parties mark a sharp break with the ruling neo-liberal, Christian and Social Democratic parties who have presided over a decade of crisis.
The ‘new Right’ cannot be understood simply by attaching negative labels (‘fascist’, ‘racist’ and ‘anti-Semitic’). The rise of the Right has to be placed in the context of the decay of political, social and economic institutions, the general and persistent decline of living standards and the disintegration of community bonds and class solidarity. The entire existing political edifice constructed by the neo-liberal parties bears deep responsibility for the systemic crisis and decay of everyday life. Moreover, this is how it is understood by a growing mass of working people who vote for the Right.
Egypt's Illegitimate New President
by Stephen Lendman
Egypt's sham process has no legitimacy. Elections are farcical when held.
General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ran practically unopposed. Hamdeen Sabahi masqueraded as an opponent. He supports junta rule.
On most everything that matters he's anti-democratic. Anti-populist. Anti-what ordinary Egyptians deserve.
Egyptian elections require more than one candidate. Doing so provides a veneer of legitimacy. It's fake.
Junta power runs Egypt. Sisi heads its current regime. He's Egypt's Pinochet. He's Washington's man in Cairo.
He's a US War College graduate. He maintains close Pentagon ties. He has no legitimacy whatever. He reflects fascism writ large.
Mercenary Extremists in Eastern Ukraine
by Stephen Lendman
On May 29, Itar Tass headlined "About 300 Ukrainian mercenaries from Syria fighting in south-eastern Ukraine - source."
Most "are from western regions of Ukraine, a source in the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces says." More on this below. http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2014/05/blackwater-killers-in-ukraine.html
A previous article explained the following:
Bild am Sonntag is Germany's largest Sunday circulation broadsheet. It reported Academi operatives near Slavyansk.
Syrians Working to Preserve Jewish Cultural Heritage
Franklin Lamb
It’s always encouraging when one comes upon some inspiring human enterprise, here in Syria or elsewhere, that refutes the worn shibboleths and clichés about how this or that group, or this or that religion, hates others and won’t cease targeting them until they are destroyed and burning in Hell.
In Syria today there is much evidence to refute the claims, often politically motivated, that Jewish cultural heritage sites are being singled out for destruction by rabid anti-Semites. One example of this is the Eliyahu Hanabi Synagogue in the neighborhood of Jobar, on the outskirts of Damascus. For centuries, Jobar has been inhabited by a peaceful, mixed community of Muslims, Christians, and Jews, many of whom often attended events together at the synagogue.
Why does the US govt support attacks on civilians in Ukraine?
Michael Collins
Support by the United States government for Ukraine reached stunning levels of immorality with the clear endorsement of the Kiev government's attacks on civilians in eastern part of that nation. Numerous reports (see below) in the world press indicate that the Kiev government is indiscriminately attacking the city of Slavyansk. That leaves no doubt that the Ukraine army and National Guard are attacking civilians. (Image: Save Donbass Children)
In addition to the widespread news of attacks on Slavyansk, there are also on the scene reports of Ukraine bombardments of the following eastern Ukraine cities: Seemyovka, Slavyansk, Kromatorsk and Donetsk City.
This represents a high-risk path for the Obama administration and the new cold warriors in Congress. It's one thing to kill civilians in the context of seeking to overcome the latest evildoers. It's quite another to support a government led by an oligarch that orders attacks on entire cities with irregular troops drawn self identified Nazi sympathizers and the nation's regular forces.
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