Bill Gates and Monsanto Bully Africa to Grow Defective Bt Maize

[Namaste Publishing] Independent scientists have shown that Monsanto’s GM/GE maize variety, MON810 – which has been growing in SA for 15 years – has completely failed due to the development of massive insect resistance, leading to the GM/GE maize being withdrawn from the SA market. Monsanto has compensated farmers who were forced to spray their crops with pesticides to control the pests, calling into serious question the very rationale for GM/GE crops.

According to the Director of the ACB, Mariam Mayet, ‘Monsanto got the science completely wrong on this one. Independent biosafety scientists have discovered that the inheritance of resistance in African stem borers is a dominant, not recessive, trait as erroneously assumed. Hence the insect resistance management strategies that Monsanto developed, and accepted by our regulators, based on these erroneous assumptions, were utterly ineffective.’

Undeterred, Monsanto is now pushing its flop GM/GE maize onto the rest of the continent. According to the ACB report, Monsanto has now donated its MON810 GM/GE technology ‘royalty-free’ to a Gates Foundation/Monsanto funded ‘philanthropic’ project, Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA). WEMA is being rolled out in Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The defective GM/GE maize is set to be approved for commercial growing by 2015.

WEMA was first touted for a good number of years, with much fanfare, as a charitable project intent on bringing drought tolerant maize varieties to resource poor African small farmers. However, with a sleight of hand and stony silence, WEMA has included MON810 into the mix. Field trials with MON810 are already running in Kenya and Uganda. In response to the project, the Mozambican government is now changing its biosafety laws to allow for the cultivation of GM/GE crops while WEMA is pressurising the Tanzanian government to change the country’s biosafety law that will hold Monsanto strictly liable for damages that may arise.

According to researcher with the ACB, Haidee Swanby, ‘WEMA is a convenient vehicle for Monsanto to gain regulatory approval for its controversial technology in African countries. However, “royalty-free” seed simply means that resource strapped commercial farmers will get the seed at the same price as hybrid seed, which means that these seeds will be prohibitively expensive. The patents on the gene sequences still reside with Monsanto, and farmers will have to pay premium prices for the GM/GE seeds.’

The ACB report also highlights that Monsanto’s MON810 GM/GE trait has been genetically engineered into a local Egyptian maize variety called Ajeeb. ‘Ajeeb Yieldgard’ has now been patented by Monsanto and ‘approved’ for commercial growing through circumvention of the Egyptian biosafety law. Significantly, the report highlights that the Egyptian government has published peer reviewed independent and publically funded biosafety studies on MON810 showing serious risks to human and animal health.

Said Swanby, ‘The scariest revelation is that GM/GE producers and regulatory authorities are making it all up as they go along, while the massive biotech PR machinery spreads the myth that these crops are connected to feeding the poor in Africa.’

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No Woman, No Drive

Hilarious!!! Jigging up the "No woman, no drive" ban (religious edict) in Saudi Arabia
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AMERICA: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap

Two CEOs were paid more than $1 billion, and the worst paid among the top ten took home $100 million. When the presstitutes speak of economic recovery, they mean recovery for the one percent.~~ Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

[4th Media] The year 2014 could be shaping up as the year that the chickens come home to roost.

Americans, even well-informed ones, don’t know all of the mistakes made by neoconized and corrupted Washington in the past two decades.

However, enough is known to see that the US has lost economic and political power, and that the loss is irreversible.

The economic cost of this lost will be born by what remains of the middle class and the increasingly poverty-stricken lower class. The one percent will have offshore gold holdings and large sums of money in foreign currencies and other foreign assets to see them through.

In the political arena, the collapse of the Soviet Union presented Washington with the grand opportunity to reallocate the Pentagon budget to other uses. Part of the reduction could have been returned to taxpayers for their own use. Another part could have been used to improve worn out infrastructure.

And another part could have been used to repair and improve the social safety net, thus insuring domestic tranquility.

A final, but perhaps most important part, could have been used to begin repaying the Treasury IOUs in the Social Security Trust Fund from which Washington has borrowed and spent $2 trillion, leaving non-marketable IOUs in the place of the Social Security payroll tax revenues that Washington raided in order to fund its wars and current operations.

Instead, influenced by neoconservative warmongers who advocated America using its “sole superpower” status to establish hegemony over the world, Washington let hubris and arrogance run away with it.

The consequence was that Washington destroyed its soft power with lies and war crimes, only to find that its military power was insufficient to support its occupation of Iraq, its conquest of Afghanistan, and its financial imperialism.

Now seen universally as a lawless warmonger and a nuisance, Washington’s soft power has been squandered. With its influence on the wane, Washington has become more of a bully. In response, the rest of the world is isolating Washington.

The prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, recently declared China and Russia to be India’s “most important partners” with whom India shares “common strategic interests.” Prime Minister Singh said: “ India and Russia have always had a convergence of views on global and regional issues, and we value Russia’s perspective on international developments of mutual interest.”

India joined China in expressing concerns about the Federal Reserve’s practice of printing money in order to cover Washington’s vast red ink.

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) are taking steps to create their own method of settling trade accounts in order to protect themselves from the looming dollar implosion,

China has forcefully called for a “de-Americanized world.” After watching the “superpower” offshore a large part of its GDP to China and then add to the diminished tax base the burden of $6 trillion in wars that brought no booty and served no US interest, China has concluded that American power is spent.

The London Telegraph thinks “it is only a matter of time before the renminbi replaces the dollar as the primary currency for trading commodities and resources.”

The Obama regime attempted to attack Syria based on the sort of lies that the Bush regime used to invade Iraq, only to be slapped down by the British Parliament and Russian government. This rebuke was followed by the childishness of the government shutdown and threat of default.

Consequently, the Washington morons have lost their monopoly on economic and political leadership.

A few days ago the British government announced a historic agreement that permits British investors direct access to China’s markets and allows Chinese banks to expand their operations in Great Britain.

In Australia, the US dollar will no longer be used as the currency in which to settle the Australian trade accounts with China. Instead of dollars, trade will be settled in the Chinese currency.

Washington served as cheerleader, as did most economists and libertarians, while US corporations, greedy for short-term profits and executive bonuses, offshored US industry and manufacturing, calling it free trade.

The obvious and predicted result is that China’s demand for resources needed to fuel its industrial and manufacturing power now dominates markets.

This means that the US dollar is being displaced as world currency. The only market that America dominates is the market for financial fraud.

When industrial, manufacturing, and tradeable professional service jobs are offshored, they take US GDP and tax base with them. The foreign country gets the benefit of the relocated economic activity. Due to the revenues lost from jobs offshoring, there is a large gap between federal revenues and federal expenditures.

As Washington’s irresponsible behavior has raised so many doubts about the dollar’s value and the government’s commitment to stand behind its massive debt, foreign countries with trade surpluses with the US are less and less willing to recycle those surpluses into the purchase of US Treasury debt.

Today the two largest holders of US Treasury debt are not investors or even foreign central banks. The two largest holders are the Federal Reserve and the Social Security Trust Fund.

As for those $6 trillion wars, that’s to pay for national defense to protect us from women, children, and village elders in far away countries devoid of air forces and navies, and to provide those recycled taxpayer monies from the military/security complex that find their way into political contributions.

The Wall Street gangsters sighed for relief over the last minute debt ceiling agreement. This shows how short-term Wall Street’s outlook is.

All the October agreement did was to push off the crisis to January and February. The “debt ceiling agreement” did not produce a new debt ceiling that would last beyond February, and it did not resolve the large difference between federal revenues and expenditures.

In other words, the can was again kicked down the road. A repeat of the October fiasco won’t play well.

Obamacare is causing the premiums on private insurance polices to rise substantially, almost doubling in some situations unless people move to the uncertain exchanges, and Obamacare’s raid on Medicare payroll tax revenues has resulted in a cut in Medicare payments to health care providers. The result is a further reduction in consumer discretionary income and a further drop in the economy.

This in turn means a larger federal budget deficit and the need for the Federal Reserve to purchase more debt.

Another reason the Federal Reserve is faced with increasing, not tapering, quantitative easing (money printing) is the decline in foreign purchases of US Treasury bills, notes, and bonds.

As the instruments pay interest that is less than the rate of inflation, holding Treasury debt makes no sense when the dollar’s value and the potential of default are open questions.

According to reports, not only are foreign governments, such as China, ceasing to buy US Treasury debt, China has started to sell off its holdings, substituting gold in the place of US Treasury debt.

This means that the bonds must be purchased by the Fed or interest rates will rise as the increased supply of bonds on the market drives down bond prices. The only way the Fed can purchase a larger supply of bonds is by printing more money, that is, by more quantitative easing.

With the world moving away from using the dollar to settle international accounts, as the Fed prints more dollars the rate at which foreign holders of dollar assets sell off their holdings will rise.

To get out of dollars requires that the dollar proceeds from selling Treasuries, US stocks and US real estate be sold in the currency markets.

The selling of dollars drives down the exchange value of the US dollar and results in rising US inflation. The Fed can print money with which to purchase Treasury debt, but it cannot print foreign currencies with which to purchase dollars.

The decline in the dollar’s exchange value and the domestic inflation that results will force the Fed to stop printing. What then covers the gap between revenues and expenditures? The likely answer is private pensions and any other asset that Washington can get its hands on.

Initially, private pensions will be taxed at a rate to recover the tax-free accumulation in the pensions. The second year a national emergency will be used to confiscate some share of pensions. Those relying on the pensions will find themselves with less income. Consumer spending will decline. The economy will worsen. The deficit will widen.

You can see where this is going, and there seems to be no way out. Policymakers, economists, and corporation executives are in denial about the adverse effects of offshoring, which they still, despite all the evidence, maintain is good for the economy. So nothing will be done about offshoring.

Republicans will blame the budget deficit on welfare and entitlements, and if those are cut consumer spending will decline further, widening the budget deficit. Inflation will rise as incomes fall, and social cohesion will break down.

Now you know why Homeland Security purchased 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, enough ammunition to fight the Iraq war for 12 years, has its own para-military force and 2,700 tanks.

If you think the “terrorist threat” in America warrants a domestic armed force of this size, you are out of your mind. This force has been assembled to deal with starving and homeless people in the streets of America.

Read More

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available. http://paulcraigroberts.org/

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American Economist: US already third world economy

“America is in the toilet, and the rest of the world knows it,” he wrote, noting, “More small businesses close, as memberships decline in golf clubs, as more university graduates return home to live with their parents, who are drawing down their savings to live.”~~ Paul Craig Roberts

[PressTv] A prominent American economist says the United States has already become a Third World economy as the world superpower continues to offshore its gross domestic product (GDP).

"If jobs offshoring continued, the US would be a Third World economy in 20 years,” Paul Craig Roberts wrote in a column for the Press TV website on Thursday.

“America is in the toilet, and the rest of the world knows it,” he wrote, noting, “More small businesses close, as memberships decline in golf clubs, as more university graduates return home to live with their parents, who are drawing down their savings to live.”

“With the world moving away from using the dollar to settle international accounts, as the Federal Reserve prints more dollars, the rate at which foreign holders of dollar assets sell off their holdings will rise,” wrote Roberts.

The economist added that the US neocons who rule in Washington and their Israeli ally are, however, determined that “Washington start yet more wars to create Lebensraum for Israel.”

A new jobs report released on Tuesday showed the US economic recovery continues to be sluggish and many economists warn that the constant fiscal fights in Washington only threaten to make the situation worse.

The US economy added 148,000 jobs in September while the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 7.2 percent, federal economists reported Tuesday. The report fell short of expectations as economists had estimated the number of jobs added would come in at 185,000.

“The decline in the dollar’s exchange value and the domestic inflation that results will force the Fed to stop printing. What then covers the gap between revenues and expenditures? The likely answer is private pensions and any other asset that Washington can get its hands on,” noted Roberts in his article.

Analysts say that the recent US government shutdown could cloud the value of the next two monthly reports, meaning that a clear picture of the jobs market may not appear until the December report is released in January.

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Said the Spider to Toyota "Jump right ahead in my web"

The auto manufacturer has recalled Camrys - the best-selling car in the U.S. - as well as Venzas and Avalons that were built from 2012 onwards. The reason the company gave was that the arachnid's sticky webs could cause a blockage, which could in turn activate the driver-side airbags as well as cut the cars' power steering - potentially resulting in a nasty accident.

[Mail Online] Toyota has recalled 885,000 cars for the unlikely reason that spider webs could cause airbags to accidentally inflate and cause drivers to lose control at the wheel.

Toyota's Venza

The auto manufacturer has recalled Camrys - the best-selling car in the U.S. - as well as Venzas and Avalons that were built from 2012 onwards. The reason the company gave was that the arachnid's sticky webs could cause a blockage, which could in turn activate the driver-side airbags as well as cut the cars' power steering - potentially resulting in a nasty accident.

The problem lies with the air conditioning condenser unit housing - an area of the car that can get warm and is dark and damp - ideal spider habitat. Toyota explained the spider webs can cause a blockage in a drainage tube that comes from the cars' air conditioning condenser.

While the result is not immediately dramatic, the blockage causes water to drip down into the airbag control module, which short circuits and can lead to a worrying warning light to display on the dashboard, or more seriously, cause the airbag to inflate suddenly. The company warned that there is even a risk of complete loss of power steering and "loss of steering assist results in increased steering effort".

Toyota is in the process of notifying owners of the affected vehicles and said its dealers simply need to apply sealant and install a cover to the air conditioning condenser unit housing seam located above the airbag control module, to fix the problem.

Toyota's Camry

One of the models which needs repair is the Camry, which is the best selling car in the United States, having already sold 318,990 cars so far this year. Of the massive number which need fixing, 847,000 are in North America with the remainder in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. According to Toyota, there have been no crashes due to the error as yet.

Toyota's Avalon 2013/14

A Toyota spokesman told CNN Money the company is aware of three cases of airbags suddenly inflating and 35 cases of warning lights showing. The company said that in the cases it has investigated, the cause has been spiderwebs, but they cannot confirm that every instance has been created by the troublesome arachnids.

This is not the first time that spiders have been blamed for car recalls. In 2011, Mazda recalled 52,000 Mazda 6 sedans because spiders built webs inside a vent for the petrol tank, which could have led to vent blockages and even fires.

According to Gwen Pearson's blog for Wired, the culprit in the Mazda recall was the tiny yellow sac spider, which is commonly found in gardens. The creatures spin tubular webs in which they hide during the daytime and as their silk creations are quite dense and water repellent, they can clog an opening in a vent fairly easily.

Toyota has already issued two major recalls in recent months, asking for the return of around around 2.2 million vehicles. In September, the company called back around 780,000 Lexus and Rav4 models. That was a second recall of the same models after an initial call back in 2012 did not fix problems with the cars suspension systems.

Last month, it also recalled 615,000 Sienna minivans in the US after a problem with the gear box was discovered. Analysts said the recalls could have an impact on its reputation with the customers. A statement on the car maker's American site, said: Owners of the involved vehicles will be notified by first class mail to return their vehicles to a Toyota dealer for the repair.

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Fake fainting at the Rose Garden? You be the judge


Lady Patriots believe the woman who fainted behind the president at his Obamacare speech earlier in the week was part of a Whitehouse fraud. Have a listen:

"It is obvious that there are quite a few people involved in this latest fraud put out by the Whitehouse. Why did Obama think it was necessary to “catch” a fainting woman just when he said the words, “To free families from the pervasive fear that one illness….” And down she went? Well not actually down. She just weaved and wobbled a little and never quite fainted. And, consequently, Obama never actually caught her. He turned around and put his hand on her shoulder as if to steady her and turned back to the camera to make sure it got a clear shot of his “rescue” efforts... Whatever the reason was that Obama and his advisers had to dream up this silly scheme it certainly smacks of desperation. If I was him I would fire them all. But, who knows? As stupid as this idea was, it could have been his. Maybe he’ll fire himself."

Now watch the video and you decide.

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Nigeria: When you look in the mirror...

Suddenly, they are no longer armed robbers. Your son is now a rebel with a cause! Don’t matter what you call it; Boko Haram, MEND, OPC, MASSOB whoever, whatever. There are plenty of causes to die for or make plenty of money from while trying hard to die. So soon, they are celebrities grabbing headlines. A somebody. A dream come true! Then BANG! It is no more. Just a dead dream.~~ Michael .O. Dibiaezue

by Michael .O. Dibiaezue

I look at our youth and I’m so despondent. Nigeria has never had it so bad. The giant of Africa is such a joke. And we were never like this. Seventy-nine percent of medical practitioners in the United States are Nigerians. They are not considered by our youth examples worth emulating. They think D’banj and 2-face. Genevieve and Omo Sexy. The adventurous ones turn Ade Bendel/Fred Ajuduah wannabes or Aninih/Osunbor James Bond daredevils. How did it get so bad?

D'banj and his lapel made of dollars suit

Defiant. They show it. Perverts in schools, killers at the bar. A gun in your face or a missing daughter. Body parts and the magic of wealth. Culture shock. It’s not Africa, not Nigeria. They turned their backs a long time ago because we refused to listen. It is our demons that did this to them. They found decadence abroad and at home; beautiful kids ensnared.

Now, they are looking to really ‘spoil’ something. They look around and there is nothing they can call their own. They see who has stolen their future and they know why they are without dreams. They wonder why their parents’ generation don’t care; where parental care and love had gone. They wonder why their parents are such gluttons. And they were such good kids.

Defiance. They apply examples from their environment in expressing it. Screw school, D’banj go school? Abeg, give me that thing make I smoke. Shock therapy. Players and actors, making believe. A game played with lethal consequences. A play staged from fury. A script written in blood. An army waiting to be called upon. And now, dogs of war and mayhem unleashed.

My country is being infiltrated by an army bred from all our decadence, an army abused, molested and abandoned stares at us through a bloody haze. Red in the eyes and dripping blood. An army being conscripted from within, our very own, to slaughter and mutilate us. And we do not even see them coming.

Our Northern leaders and elite failed their youth but so did the South. I am terrified because our youth have found a vent; a release that deflates into unspeakable terror. They come for us; a throwback of the demons we infected them with. It is not anger but a joyful suicidal streak bred from a welcomed insanity; because we made them mad.

It is the picture of a future, our future. Drug lords, scammers and armed robbers. Arsonists, bombers and murderers. Gunrunners, addicts of all forms and rapists. Youth laid waste. Societal degenerates. Children of the streets. Raped by demons of the night, even as they prayed to die. Behold our inheritors and descendants! A reflection of all our future names. And we dare to say it is their fault? Truly, we have no shame. Look in the mirror and see they have become you.

Signature House in Abuja
They know the source of your wealth. They know Daddy stole government money big time! No, scratch that, they know Daddy stole his people's money big time! You know they know. And yet, you wonder at what they call you??? You buy them choice presents, they giggle and hug. They want to be like Daddy. They know they will be called thieves but who cares? Look in the mirror, they are who you are!

Why do you think they do not have the right to make that choice, to be like Daddy? Where do you find the moral clout to tell them they can’t steal from their mates or from the old lady next door??? You didn’t have the guts to rob a bank, why won’t they pull one better over you??? They don’t see that they are any different from you, just better. Yes, they consider themselves better men; they did that you couldn’t do! Look in the mirror, it’s you on steroids!!!

Suddenly, they are no longer armed robbers. Your son is now a rebel with a cause! Don’t matter what you call it; Boko Haram, MEND, OPC, MASSOB whoever, whatever. There are plenty of causes to die for or make plenty of money from while trying hard to die. So soon, they are celebrities grabbing headlines. A somebody. A dream come true! Then BANG! It is no more. Just a dead dream.

And you wonder, how did my boy get to be and die like that? You hypocrite!!! But of course, you are no thief. Just some smart guy. It’s not like you are a convict or stuff like that. You have never been arrested or even accused of theft for that matter. You have loads of money to write your own history with. You have the ‘citations’ and ‘trophies’ that say who you are. Meritorious discharge and the fake ‘Rolex’ presented to you by a greater crook and thief: your boss. How dare anyone call you a thief!

It must be from his mother’s end; this type of thing is not in our genes or our family. And it’s true, look at him; he’s Rosa’s carbon copy. See his nose now. After all, when I keep N15 million in her account, Rosa will tell me it’s 14 and that she spent another N3 million to keep the boys quiet. I swear, that wife of mine is a real first class rogue. The kettle never called the pot black, it was the water that did. Na true bros, na water talk am.

But still, you have to come; to bury a son. You must come down the aisle, to the place your son lays. You must walk through the parade and see the faces. Faces that know who you are, not there to sympathize but to mock the irony of the life you led. My beloved country, my brothers, my sisters, sorry for your loss.

May the soul of our dearly departed rest in peace... Amen!

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Give the World a Break! America the Pest

The people in Washington just can’t stand the idea that someone, somewhere might be having a normal, happy life without getting bombed to death in drone attack or shunted off to some black site where the CIA can rip out their fingernails or beat them black and blue.

That’s what this whole global war on terror-thing is all about. It’s about sticking your big fat nose in other people’s business 24-7. Some people just get a kick out of that.!!~~ Mike Whitney

[The 4th Media] The United States is the world’s biggest pest. It doesn’t matter where you live or what you do, the US will find some excuse to poke its nose in your business and make your life miserable.

That’s why the US has so many enemies, because its the world’s biggest budinski.

The people in Washington just can’t stand the idea that someone, somewhere might be having a normal, happy life without getting bombed to death in drone attack or shunted off to some black site where the CIA can rip out their fingernails or beat them black and blue.

That’s what this whole global war on terror-thing is all about. It’s about sticking your big fat nose in other people’s business 24-7. Some people just get a kick out of that.

Why? Because they’re obnoxious people, that’s why. Like the drunk who shows up at your dinner party and slops red wine all over the rug. That’s the US in a nutshell, a first-rate pain-in-the-ass.

Everyone knows this is true, even the flag wavers. They know we shouldn’t be in Afghanistan or Iraq or Somalia or Yemen or wherever. We just go to be annoying, because that’s who we are, The Irritating States of America.

I get tired of leftist writers droning on and on about the Empire-this and the Superpower-that. It’s all baloney, and it misses the point. In fact, it dignifies US behavior as though it was all part of some grand plan.

It’s not. There is no plan. The plan is to hector people until they can’t stand it anymore. That’s not really a plan at all. It’s just being a pest. It’s like the brat who keeps kicking the back of your seat when your flying across country or the wasp that shows up at the company picnic.

Are you going to tell me the wasp has a plan? No. The wasp has no plan and neither does the US. The US is just doing what it does best; making a first class nuisance of itself.

So now the government is going to shutdown, right? And all the liberal pundits are wringing their hands moaning that the world’s going to come to an end because this lumbering, annoying giant is going on holiday. Is that it?

Let me tell you something: The world needs a little breather from the US, you know, nothing permanent, just a five or ten year sabbatical so we can all chill out and catch our breath.

Does that sound so bad? I mean, wouldn’t it be nice to get a break from all the killing, the spying, and the meddling. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine what life on this planet would be like if you could just snap your fingers and “poof”, the US vanished for a couple years?

Who knows, there might even be some cooperation on the big issues, like global warming, or environmental destruction or global pandemics. Then again, maybe there wouldn’t be. Maybe relations between countries would be as fractious as they are today.

Either way, things would be a lot better than they are now because there’d be a heckuva lot less killing, a heckuva lot less maiming and a heckuva lot less troublemaking. Because the world’s biggest pest would be out of the picture.

Call me crazy, but I can’t see the downside to that.

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.

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The Cape of Good Hope

"As I expounded at length elsewhere, the US is built on the Judaic theology of exceptionalism, of being Chosen. It is the country of [the] Old Testament. This is the deeper reason for the US and Israel’s special relationship...

For this reason, while organised US Jewry supported the war, condemned Assad and called for US intervention, the Jewish community of Russia, quite numerous, wealthy and influential one, did not support the Syrian rebels but rather stood by Putin’s effort to preserve peace in Syria. Ditto Iran...

It appears that countries guided by a strong established church are immune from disruptive influence of lobbies; while countries without such a church – the US and/or France – give in to such influences and adopt illegal interventionism as a norm."~~ Israel Shamir

American exceptionalism in action!!

by Israel Shamir

[Veterans News Now] First, the good news. American hegemony is over. The bully has been subdued. We cleared the Cape of Good Hope, symbolically speaking, in September 2013. With the Syrian crisis, the world has passed a key forking of modern history. It was touch and go, just as risky as the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.

The chances for total war were high, as the steely wills of America and Eurasia had crossed in the Eastern Mediterranean. It will take some time until the realisation of what we’ve gone through seeps in: it is normal for events of such magnitude. The turmoil in the US, from the mad car chase in the DC to the shutdown of federal government and possible debt default, are the direct consequences of this event.

Remember the Berlin Wall? When it went down, I was in Moscow, writing for Haaretz. I went to a press-conference with Politburo members in the President Hotel, and asked them whether they concurred that the end of the USSR and world socialist system was nigh. I was laughed at; it was an embarrassing occasion. Oh no, they said. Socialism will blossom, as the result of the Wall’s fall. The USSR went down two years later. Now our memory has compacted those years into a brief sequence, but in reality, it took some time.

Kissinger and son? Question time!!

The most dramatic event of September 2013 was the high-noon stand-off near the Levantine shore, with five US destroyers pointing their Tomahawks towards Damascus and facing them – the Russian flotilla of eleven ships led by the carrier-killer Missile Cruiser Moskva and supported by Chinese warships. Apparently, two missiles were launched towards the Syrian coast, and both failed to reach their destination.

It was claimed by a Lebanese newspaper quoting diplomatic sources that the missiles were launched from a NATO air base in Spain and they were shot down by the Russian ship-based sea-to-air defence system. Another explanation proposed by the Asia Times says the Russians employed their cheap and powerful GPS jammers to render the expensive Tomahawks helpless, by disorienting them and causing them to fail. Yet another version attributed the launch to the Israelis, whether they were trying to jump-start the shoot-out or just observed the clouds, as they claim.

American exceptionalism and two thumbs up for decadence!

Whatever the reason, after this strange incident, the pending shoot-out did not commence, as President Obama stood down and holstered his guns. This was preceded by an unexpected vote in the British Parliament. This venerable body declined the honour of joining the attack proposed by the US. This was the first time in two hundred years that the British parliament voted down a sensible proposition to start a war; usually the Brits can’t resist the temptation.

After that, President Obama decided to pass the hot potato to the Congress. He was unwilling to unleash Armageddon on his own. Thus the name of action was lost. Congress did not want to go to war with unpredictable consequences. Obama tried to browbeat Putin at the 20G meeting in St Petersburg, and failed. The Russian proposal to remove Syrian chemical weaponry allowed President Obama to save face. This misadventure put paid to American hegemony , supremacy and exceptionalism. Manifest Destiny was over. We all learned that from Hollywood flics: the hero never stands down; he draws and shoots! If he holsters his guns, he is not a hero: he’s chickened out.

American exceptionalism and the yoke of death!

Afterwards, things began to unravel fast. The US President had a chat with the new president of Iran, to the chagrin of Tel Aviv. The Free Syrian Army rebels decided to talk to Assad after two years of fighting him, and their delegation arrived in Damascus, leaving the Islamic extremists high and dry. Their supporter Qatar is collapsing overextended. The shutdown of their government and possible debt default gave the Americans something real to worry about. With the end of US hegemony, the days of the dollar as the world reserve currency are numbered.

World War III almost occurred as the banksters wished it. They have too many debts, including the unsustainable foreign debt of the US. If those Tomahawks had flown, the banksters could have claimed Force Majeure and disavow the debt. Millions of people would die, but billions of dollars would be safe in the vaults of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. In September, the world crossed this bifurcation point safely, as President Obama refused to take the fall for the banksters. Perhaps he deserved his Nobel peace prize, after all.

The near future is full of troubles but none are fatal. The US will lose its emission rights as a source of income. The US dollar will cease to serve as the world reserve currency though it will remain the North American currency. Other parts of the world will resort to their euro, yuan, rouble, bolivar, or dinar. The US military expenditure will have to be slashed to normal, and this elimination of overseas bases and weaponry will allow the US population to make the transition rather painlessly. Nobody wants to go after America; the world just got tired of them riding shotgun all over the place. The US will have to find new employment for so many bankers, jailers, soldiers, even politicians.

American exceptionalism and the bone crushing weight of Empire!

As I stayed in Moscow during the crisis, I observed these developments as they were seen by Russians. Putin and Russia have been relentlessly hard-pressed for quite a while.

* The US supported and subsidised Russia’s liberal and nationalist opposition; the national elections in Russia were presented as one big fraud. The Russian government was delegitimised to some extent.

* The Magnitsky Act of the US Congress authorised the US authorities to arrest and seize the assets of any Russian they deem is up to no good, without a recourse to a court.

* Some Russian state assets were seized in Cyprus where the banks were in trouble.

* The US encouraged Pussy Riot, gay parades etc. in Moscow, in order to promote an image of Putin the dictator, enemy of freedom and gay-hater in the Western and Russian oligarch-owned media.

* Russian support for Syria was criticised, ridiculed and presented as a brutal act devoid of humanity. At the same time, Western media pundits expressed certainty that Russia would give up on Syria.

American exceptionalism and the pyramid of dementia!

As I wrote previously, Russia had no intention to surrender Syria, for a number of good reasons: it was an ally; the Syrian Orthodox Christians trusted Russia; geopolitically the war was getting too close to Russian borders. But the main reason was Russia’s annoyance with American high-handedness. The Russians felt that such important decisions should be taken by the international community, meaning the UN Security Council. They did not appreciate the US assuming the role of world arbiter.

In the 1990s, Russia was very weak, and could not effectively object, but they felt bitter when Yugoslavia was bombed and NATO troops moved eastwards breaking the US promise to Gorbachev. The Libyan tragedy was another crucial point. That unhappy country was bombed by NATO, and eventually disintegrated. From the most prosperous African state it was converted into most miserable. Russian presence in Libya was rather limited, but still, Russia lost some investment there. Russia abstained in the vote on Libya as this was the position of the then Russian president Dmitry Medvedev who believed in playing ball with the West. In no way was Putin ready to abandon Syria to the same fate.

An American dog called exceptional!

... and the aftermath of its exceptionalism!

The Russian rebellion against the US hegemony began in June, when the Aeroflot flight from Beijing carrying Ed Snowden landed in Moscow. Americans pushed every button they could think of to get him back. They activated the full spectre of their agents in Russia. Only a few voices, including that of yours truly, called on Russia to provide Snowden with safe refuge, but our voices prevailed. Despite the US pressure, Snowden was granted asylum.

The next step was the Syrian escalation. I do not want to go into the details of the alleged chemical attack. In the Russian view, there was not and could not be any reason for the US to act unilaterally in Syria or anywhere else. In a way, the Russians have restored the Law of Nations to its old revered place. The world has become a better and safer place.

None of this could’ve been achieved without the support of China. The Asian giant considers Russia its “elder sister” and relies upon her ability to deal with the round-eyes. The Chinese, in their quiet and unassuming way, played along with Putin. They passed Snowden to Moscow. They vetoed anti-Syrian drafts in the UNSC, and sent their warships to the Med. That is why Putin stood the ground not only for Russia, but for the whole mass of Eurasia.

American exceptionalism; teaching our world new 'tricks'!!!

The Church was supportive of Putin’s efforts; not only the Russian Church, but both Catholics and Orthodox were united in their opposition to the pending US campaign for the US-supported rebels massacred Christians. The Pope appealed to Putin as to defender of the Church; so did the churches of Jerusalem and Antioch. The Pope almost threatened to excommunicate Hollande, and the veiled threat impressed the French president. So Putin enjoyed support and blessing of the Orthodox Patriarchs and of the Pope: such double blessing is an extremely rare occassion.

There were many exciting and thrilling moments in the Syrian saga, enough to fill volumes. An early attempt to subdue Putin at G8 meeting in Ireland was one of them. Putin was about to meet with the united front of the West, but he managed to turn some of them to his side, and he sowed the seeds of doubt in others’ hearts by reminding them of the Syrian rebel manflesh-eating chieftains.

The proposal to eliminate Syrian chemical weapons was deftly introduced; the UNSC resolution blocked the possibility of attacking Syria under cover of Chapter Seven.Miraculously, the Russians won in this mighty tug-of-war. The alternative was dire: Syria would be destroyed as Libya was; a subsequent Israeli-American attack on Iran was unavoidable; Oriental Christianity would lose its cradle; Europe would be flooded by millions of refugees; Russia would be proven irrelevant, all talk and no action, as important as Bolivia, whose President’s plane can be grounded and searched at will. Unable to defend its allies, unable to stand its ground, Russia would’ve been left with a ‘moral victory’, a euphemism for defeat. Everything Putin has worked for in 13 years at the helm would’ve been lost; Russia would be back to where it was in 1999, when Clinton bombed Belgrade.

American exceptionalism with a boot-stamp to the face!

The acme of this confrontation was reached in the Obama-Putin exchange on exceptionalism. The two men were not buddies to start with. Putin was annoyed by what he perceived as Obama’s insincerity and hypocrisy. A man who climbed from the gutter to the very top, Putin cherishes his ability to talk frankly with people of all walks of life. His frank talk can be shockingly brutal. When he was heckled by a French journalist regarding treatment of Chechen separatists, he replied:

“the Muslim extremists (takfiris) are enemies of Christians, of atheists, and even of Muslims because they believe that traditional Islam is hostile to the goals that they set themselves. And if you want to become an Islamic radical and are ready to be circumcised, I invite you to Moscow. We are a multi-faith country and we have experts who can do it. And I would advise them to carry out that operation in such a way that nothing would grow in that place again”.

Another example of his shockingly candid talk was given at Valdai as he replied to BBC’s Bridget Kendall. She asked: did the threat of US military strikes actually play a rather useful role in Syria’s agreeing to have its weapons placed under control?

Putin replied: Syria got itself chemical weapons as an alternative to Israel’s nuclear arsenal. He called for the disarmament of Israel and invoked the name of Mordecai Vanunu as an example of an Israeli scientist who opposes nuclear weapons. (My interview with Vanunu had been recently published in the largest Russian daily paper, and it gained some notice).

Putin tried to talk frankly to Obama. We know of their exchange from a leaked record of the Putin-Netanyahu confidential conversation. Putin called the American and asked him: what’s your point in Syria?

American exceptionalism; all about 'human rights'!!

Obama replied: I am worried that Assad’s regime does not observe human rights. Putin almost puked from the sheer hypocrisy of this answer. He understood it as Obama’s refusal to talk with him “on eye level”.

American exceptionalism! Observing human rights!!

In the aftermath of the Syrian stand-off, Obama appealed to the people of the world in the name of American exceptionalism. The United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional”, he said.

Putin responded: “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.” This was not only an ideological, but theological contradistinction.

As I expounded at length elsewhere, the US is built on the Judaic theology of exceptionalism, of being Chosen. It is the country of Old Testament. This is the deeper reason for the US and Israel’s special relationship.

American exceptionalism? No thank you!

Europe is going through a stage of apostasy and rejection of Christ, while Russia remains deeply Christian. Its churches are full, they bless one other with Christmas and Easter blessings, instead of neutral “seasons” greetings. Russia is a New Testament country. And rejection of exceptionalism, of chosenness is the underlying tenet of Christianity.

For this reason, while organised US Jewry supported the war, condemned Assad and called for US intervention, the Jewish community of Russia, quite numerous, wealthy and influential one, did not support the Syrian rebels but rather stood by Putin’s effort to preserve peace in Syria. Ditto Iran, where the wealthy Jewish community supported the legitimate government in Syria. It appears that countries guided by a strong established church are immune from disruptive influence of lobbies; while countries without such a church – the US and/or France – give in to such influences and adopt illegal interventionism as a norm.

As US hegemony declines, we look to an uncertain future. The behemoth might of the US military can still wreck havoc; a wounded beast is the most dangerous one. Americans may listen to Senator Ron Paul who called to give up overseas bases and cut military expenditure. Norms of international law and sovereignty of all states should be observed. People of the world will like America again when it will cease snooping and bullying. It isn’t easy, but we’ve already negotiated the Cape and gained Good Hope.

Israel Shamir is a leading Russian Israeli writer, a champion of the "One Man, One Vote, One State" solution seeking to unite Palestine & Israel in one democratic state. Shamir's work and that of his contributors speaks to the aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians seeking an end to the bloodshed, true democracy and lasting peace.

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The Devastating Impacts of IMF-World Bank “Economic Medicine”

... in 2010, it reached $1.6 trillion (total public external debt), or less than 5% of the resources devoted by the US Government to bail-out the banks. If such a massive amount of resources can be marshaled to secure the bonuses of banking executives, is it too much to ask for a small share of those same resources to secure better living conditions for hundreds of millions of people around the world?~~ Daniel Munevar and Eric Toussaint

[Global Research] As the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund hold their annual meeting in Washington 11-13th October 2013 it is necessary to take a look at the state of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The history of economic development is strewn with attempts to correct the “mistakes” of development policy. The preferred method is to add new elements to the agenda. This approach has led to adding an ever increasing number of issues, from environmental concerns to social policies, into the policy discussions.

The results of this practice are clear to see: of the original 8 Millennium Development Goals, only 2 have been met, with serious doubts regarding the possibility of meeting the other 6. The track record of the current development agenda is very disappointing.

So, the issue is not to add new elements to the framework, but to assess if the elements that are already present are working, and if they are not, can they be eliminated. The one element that stands out on that regard is Debt, as an economic, social and political development policy tool.

Since the implementation of the Marshall Plan in Europe, policy circles have been burdened with the notion that injections of capital and fresh financial resources constitute one of the basic components of development. Based on this premise, the World Bank has tried throughout the last 69 years to help countries to borrow their way into development. In many cases, the living conditions of hundreds of millions of people in the World have been degraded as a result of the debt based policies forced on them by the World Bank and the IMF with the complicity of their own governments.

Instead of providing developing countries with fresh resources, the debt system has forced them to give priority to payments to creditors over the provision of basic social services. According to World Bank data, in 2010 alone, developing countries paid out $184 billion on debt service, about three times the annual resources required for the fulfillment of the MDGs. Even more troublesome, between 1985 and 2010 net public debt flows to developing countries, that is the difference between debt inflows and debt payments, have reached -$530 billion. To place this number in context, this is the equivalent of five Marshall Plans.

Throughout this time, debt has been used by the IFI´s and creditor countries alike to push developing countries to adopt policies that, if anything, prevent them from securing minimum living conditions for their populations. From the privatization and downsizing of public services, to opening internal markets to imports which has seriously undermined food sovereignty, the policies enforced upon developing countries have crippled their capacity to achieve their own internal development.

Therefore, if something needs to be done, it is to cancel the public debts of developing countries. Contrary to what skeptics say, this debt represents no more than a drop in the bucket: in 2010, it reached $1.6 trillion (total public external debt), or less than 5% of the resources devoted by the US Government to bail-out the banks. If such a massive amount of resources can be marshaled to secure the bonuses of banking executives, is it too much to ask for a small share of those same resources to secure better living conditions for hundreds of millions of people around the world? Clearly this is a political question, rather than an economic one, debt continues to be the major obstacle to development.

As CADTM has advocated during the last 24 years, let’s be rid of it.

Daniel Munevar, economist, CADTM Colombia, and Eric Toussaint, Doctor in Political Sciences, Senior Lecturer at the University of Liège, is the President of CADTM Belgium (Committee for the Abolition of Third-World Debt, www.cadtm.org ), and a member of the Scientific Committee of ATTAC France


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