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Rich Congress, Poor America
by Stephen Lendman
The Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) calls itself "the nation's premier research group tracking money in US politics and its (corrosive) effect on elections and public policy."
"Nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit, the organization aims to create a more educated voter, an involved citizenry, and a more transparent and responsive government."
Doing so remains a major uphill struggle. It shows virtually no signs of success. Conditions are worse than ever in modern times. Washington's political establishment is ruthless, corrupt and lawless.
Members infesting it are privileged. Most are very, very rich. Generous congressional benefits supplement their wealth.
Fidel at 87
Stephen Lendman
Last August 13, Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz turned 87. He's a legend in his own time. He led Cuba's revolution. He did so for half a century.
Freedom replaced police state rule. US imperial dominance ended. So did mafia boss control. Cuba was transformed into a casino and brothel. No longer since 1959.
Cubans won't tolerate recolonization. They survived America's viciousness. So did Fidel.
He remains committed for world peace. He champions social justice. He deplores imperial lawlessness. He survived against long odds.
Washington wanted him dead. He survived hundreds of attempts to kill him. In July 2006, he underwent major gastrointestinal surgery. Misreporting pronounced him dead or dying.
Following his recovery, George Bush said: "One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away."
In response, Fidel said: "Now I understand why I survived Bush's plans and the plans of other presidents who ordered my assassination. The good Lord protected me."
A Palestinian-Hezbollah War in Lebanon?
by FRANKLIN LAMB
Ain el Helweh camp, Lebanon
It’s not just the leadership of the Zionist regime still occupying Palestine, six decades after the 1948 Nakba, that appears to be salivating at the current stoking of current tensions between the Palestinian Resistance and in some respects, its historic off-spring Hezbollah.
From Tel Aviv, to Amman, Riyadh, the Gulf Kingdoms to Washington DC and beyond, the forces allied against the Tehran-Damascus-Hezbollah-Palestinian Resistance are working on yet another project to weaken and hopefully destroy all four.
It won’t be easy, but it is reportedly a key element among the anti-Resistance forces still seeking regime change in Syria. Even while some of these governments have been playing down their central goal of regime change in public. The same governments appear to be fantasizing that by building up the Lebanese army with a pledged $ three billion from Riyadh, its troops will somehow confront Hezbollah and its allies as part of a long-term “beat em or bleed em” project.
Saudi Arabia: A Retrograde Rentier Dictatorship and Global Terrorism
James Petras
Introduction
Saudi Arabia has all the vices and none of the virtues of an oil rich state like Venezuela. The country is governed by a family dictatorship which tolerates no opposition and severely punishes human rights advocates and political dissidents. Hundreds of billions in oil revenues are controlled by the royal despotism and fuel speculative investments the world over. The ruling elite relies on the purchase of Western arms and US military bases for protection. The wealth of productive nations is syphoned to enrich the conspicuous consumption of the Saudi ruling family. The ruling elite finances the most fanatical, retrograde, misogynist version of Islam, “Wahhabi” a sect of Sunni Islam.
Faced with internal dissent from repressed subjects and religious minorities, the Saudi dictatorship perceives threats and dangers from all sides: overseas, secular, nationalists and Shia ruling governments; internally, moderate Sunni nationalists, democrats and feminists; within the royalist cliques, traditionalists and modernizers. In response it has turned toward financing, training and arming an international network of Islamic terrorists who are directed toward attacking, invading and destroying regimes opposed to the Saudi clerical-dictatorial regime.
Homelessness in Winter Cold
by Stephen Lendman
Imagine homelessness any time. Imagine struggling to survive outside. Imagine it in winter cold. Imagine it during what Chicagoans call Siberian Express conditions. From Sunday night through Thursday morning, they were dangerously frigid.
At times, Monday wind chills reached - 50 degrees Fahrenheit. O'Hare Airport's low was - 16 degrees. Downtown it was - 15.
Exposed skin risks frostbite. In extreme severe cold, it can happen in around 10 minutes.
Affected areas must be thawed and rewarmed swiftly. Failure to do so risks gangrene and infection.
Hypothermia is more serious. It's a life-threatening drop in internal body temperature. When it's below 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius), the heart, nervous system and other organs don't function properly.
Anti-Iranian Sentiment Persists
by Stephen Lendman
November and subsequent Geneva nuclear talks fell far short of final resolution. Longstanding differences remain. It shows in continuing Big Lies.
They wrongfully suggest an Iranian nuclear threat. They do so when none whatever exists. It's well known but unacknowledged.
Anti-Iranian sentiment persists. It gives pause to Washington's real intentions. On January 9, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei commented.
He said nuclear talks proved US hostility to Iran and Islam. "The Enemy's smile shouldn't be taken seriously." Its intentions and actions matter most.
America's Imperial Agenda
by Stephen Lendman
Major media editors support what demands condemnation. Wall Street Journal editors are worse than most.
They endorse Washington's imperial agenda. They believe might makes right. On January 2, they headlined "Victory in Okinawa," saying:
"...Japanese authorities will allow the US military to relocate an air base on the strategically significant island of Okinawa."
"Think of it as a triumph of democratic realism in the face of renewed regional threats."
America's presence constitutes the most significant regional threat by far. Not according to Journal editors. They falsely accused China of "saber-rattling." They want its "aggressive behavior deterred."
Here Is What Happened in Fallujah in 2004, a Prelude for What Is to Come in 2014
via chycho
The war that will determine the future of Iraq is just beginning (2). The temporary illusion of pacification, control, and peace that was financed by U.S. taxpayers through the “surge” and the “Awakening” has vanished. Left behind are a destitute people in a war-torn country awaiting their final fate as violence escalates in this proxy war between regional and global superpowers.
Sound familiar? It should. It’s what many independent analysts were warning us about while our mainstream media pundits and politicians continued to celebrate the end of war, again and again.
We’ll talk more about the reasons, the players, and the most likely outcome for the region in the future. For now, as the government of Iraq armed with U.S. weapons and supported by Iran prepares to enter Fallujah to try and displace “terrorists” armed and supported by “Saudi Arabia and its neighbors, all allies of the United States” [sic], let’s take a look at what is in store for the inhabitants of this ancient land by taking a look at what happened in Fallujah in 2004 when the United States and Britain razed the city (please note, Dahr Jamail’s testimony of what happened in Fallujah is a must watch).
The Third Battle of Fallujah
by Stephen Lendman
Iraq today is a grim reflection of America's ruthless imperial agenda. It includes mass slaughter, destruction, devastation, deprivation, human misery and unending violence. On August 31, 2010, Obama displayed criminal contempt. He's done it many times. He declared an end to America's combat mission in Iraq, saying:
"Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility." Ignored was America's genocidal legacy. Iraq was ravaged and destroyed. Pre-1990 Iraq no longer exists. Charnel house conditions replaced it.
So did plunder on the grandest of grand scales, millions of internal and external refugees, ongoing violence, dozens of daily deaths, a plague of preventable diseases, ecocide, and overall conditions too horrific to ignore.
Israel's War on Asylum Seekers
by Stephen Lendman
Israeli policy reflects the worst of Zionism's dark side. Separate and unequal defines longstanding policy.
Non-Jewish asylum seekers and refugees fleeing persecution aren't wanted. Arabs and black African ones are deplored most of all.
Israel treats them like criminals. Discriminatory laws target them. Fundamental rights are denied.
Torture victims fleeing repression face enormous hurdles to gain entry. Israel spurns international law with impunity. It does what it wants unaccountably. Protecting refugees and asylum seekers doesn't matter.
Article I of the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees calls them:
"A person who owning to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country."
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