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Departing NATO Commander Hypes Nonexistent Russian Threat
Stephen Lendman
Thousands more US-led NATO forces are being provocatively deployed near Russia’s borders.
Interviewed by Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter broadsheet, Sergey Lavrov accused NATO of “inching closer and closer to Russia’s borders. But when Russia takes action to ensure its security, we are told that Russia is engaging in dangerous maneuvers near NATO borders. In fact, NATO borders are getting closer to Russia, not the opposite.”
The 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act prohibits provocatively deploying Alliance forces near Russia’s borders. US history shows a flagrant disregard for agreement terms.
Hyping a nonexistent Russian threat is part of US-led NATO fear-mongering, a pretext for greater military spending at a time demilitarization should be prioritized - resources used for vital social and other domestic needs gone begging.
US-Backed Terrorists Shell Aleppo Hospital
Stephen Lendman
All terrorist groups in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere are US-backed, armed, funded, trained and directed to commit atrocities and other war crimes. Civilians are willfully targeted.
All attacks on residential areas, schools, hospitals, infrastructure and other nonmilitary targets are carried out by US-supported terrorists, Pentagon warplanes, Israel or other coalition partners.
Government forces and Russian aircraft have nothing to do with attacking nonmilitary targets. Accusations otherwise are fabricated.
The Obama Doctrine: America Should Rule the World
Stephen Lendman
In his May 2 Washington Post op-ed, Obama pushed for adopting the anti-consumer, anti-labor, anti-environment, pro-corporate predation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to let America write the rules on global trade and everything else.
He hyped “a boon to American businesses…” He lied claiming benefits to “American workers.” TPP’s adoption would be major step toward relegating them to neo-serfdom.
It gives America “a leg up” on China, excluded from TPP. Obama lied, claiming US standards are consumer and eco-friendly, unlike its Asian rival.
America was thirdworldized on his watch, accelerating a race to the bottom begun under his Republican and Democrat predecessors.
Bank of North Dakota Soars Despite Oil Bust: A Blueprint for California?
Ellen Brown
Despite North Dakota’s collapsing oil market, its state-owned bank continues to report record profits. This article looks at what California, with fifty times North Dakota’s population, could do following that state’s lead.
In November 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Bank of North Dakota (BND), the nation’s only state-owned depository bank, was more profitable even than J.P. Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. The author attributed this remarkable performance to the state’s oil boom; but the boom has now become an oil bust, yet the BND’s profits continue to climb. Its 2015 Annual Report, published on April 20th, boasted its most profitable year ever.
The BND has had record profits for the last 12 years, each year outperforming the last. In 2015 it reported $130.7 million in earnings, total assets of $7.4 billion, capital of $749 million, and a return on investment of a whopping 18.1 percent. Its lending portfolio grew by $486 million, a 12.7 percent increase, with growth in all four of its areas of concentration: agriculture, business, residential, and student loans.
TPP & TTIP Harmful, Economic Studies Find
Eric Zuesse
Presently, three supposed ‘trade’ deals are being proposed by U.S. President Barack Obama, to be signed by major trading nations (except Russia, China, and the other BRICS nations): TPP with Asia, TTIP with Europe, and also (but only for financial and other services) TISA with Europe. The promised benefits in all three cases are said to be economic.
Three independent economic studies have been done, two of Obama’s TTIP treaty with Europe, and one of his TPP treaty with Asia, and all three independent economic analyses find that the publics in each participating country will suffer, and that the owners of international corporations (especially in the U.S.) will benefit, if the proposed ‘trade’ deal goes into effect.
Remembering Daniel Berrigan
Stephen Lendman
On April 30, famed Jesuit priest, poet, anti-war activist Daniel Joseph Berrigan died days short of his 95th birthday.
He taught theology at the Jesuit Brooklyn Preparatory School. Later was Professor of New Testament studies at Le Moyne College, taught theology at Cornell and Fordham universities.
Best known for his anti-war activism, he co-founded an interfaith coalition against the Vietnam War with his brother Philip and Thomas Merton.
They campaigned passionately for its end. In 1967, he and Philip were arrested for pouring blood on draft records. Philip was sentenced to six years in prison for defacing government property.
In 1968, Daniel and Howard Zinn traveled to Hanoi during the January Tet Offensive to bring home three released US POWs.
In 1968, he, Philip and seven other priests (known as the Catonville Nine) burned hundreds of draft files with homemade napalm in the Catonville, MD draft board parking lot.
Cruz/Sanders Campaigns on Life Support
Stephen Lendman
Trump and Clinton are their parties’ presumptive nominees, too far ahead to be overtaken. Polls show them leading in most remaining primaries.
Ahead of Tuesday’s Indiana contest, a new NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows Trump way ahead of his rivals.
Asked on Fox News Sunday if winning Indiana assures his nomination, he brashly said “(y)es, it’s over. It’s already over.”
On NBC’s Meet the Press, Cruz maintained a brave face, saying “I think the support we are seeing is surging.” Various polls indicate otherwise.On CNN’s State of the Union, Clinton said “you have to look at reality.” It’s time for Sanders to step aside.
He and Cruz are too far behind to catch up. Will they continue their campaigns into July or concede because they have no chance to become their parties’ nominees?
Iraq in Turmoil
Stephen Lendman
Public anger over unchecked corruption while popular needs go begging may be the undoing of Washington’s puppet regime.
On Saturday, thousands breached the heavily fortified Green Zone. Hundreds entered parliament. Protesters want revolutionary change, current ministers replaced with new ones, no action so far taken.
One protester likely spoke for others, shouting “(y)ou are not staying here. This is your last day in the Green Zone.”
Another said “(w)e are fed up. We are living a humiliated life. We’ll leave here only when the corrupt government is replaced with another of independent technocrats that serve the people, not the political parties.”
Russian v. EU Refugee Policy
Stephen Lendman
Since US-supported Kiev putschists waged war on their own people, Russia welcomed well over a million Ukrainian refugees, rejecting fascist rule, most deciding never to return.
Earlier, Sergey Lavrov said “Ukrainian refugees should be given the right to live where they want.” On May 1, Putin made it easier, approving a new law, simplifying the issuance of residence permits to refugees from Ukraine and other countries.
It skips the former temporary permit system for one year for refugees and their families. According to Federal Migration Service acting head Yekaterina Yegorova, residence permission now grants its holders the right to housing, to be registered where they’re domiciled, and be eligible for mortgage loans.
Contrast Russia’s refugee policy with Europe’s - colluding with fascist Turkey to warehouse desperate people fleeing US/NATO/Riyadh/Israeli war theaters, wanting as many as possible kept out of EU countries - flagrantly breaching international humanitarian law.
Sunday Is May Day
Stephen Lendman
Labor and social justice advocates commemorate International Workers Day on May 1 - called May Day, more symbolic than meaningful.
Since the 1880s in America and Canada, Labor Day is a national holiday on the first Monday in September. It once had meaning, now pointless in nations beholden solely to wealth and power interests - worker rights lost and ignored.
Years of organizing, taking to the streets, going on strike, holding boycotts, battling police, as well as paying with blood and lives won real gains - now gone. Bargaining collectively with management on equal terms no longer exists. Grassroots energy waned. Corrupted union bosses and politicians sold out to management for personal gain.
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