Link: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/america-israel-iran-a-shifting-risk-4565/

US defence secretary Leon Panetta: war with Iran could have dangerous consequences.There is the further risk that incidents outside Iran - in the western Gulf emirates, in Iraq, involving Hizbollah in southern Lebanon, through Israeli actions, or by sheer mistake or misunderstanding - could spark uncontrollable conflict.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30065.htm

Imagine if your banker offered to lend you a $150,000 to make up for the money that you’d lost on your home since the housing bubble burst in 2006. And, let’s say, he agreed to lend you this money for 3 years at rock-bottom rates of 1 percent provided that you post the contents of your garage (ie. rusty bikes, a bent basketball hoop, an old dollhouse, and rodent-infested luggage) as collateral on the loan.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SmH0PF1IiaI

The U.S. troop withdrawal leaves behind a country embittered by an occupation that's cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars. And as U.S. soldiers return home for Christmas, the mood is far from joyful among veterans struggling to deal with the personal aftermath of the war. With soaring suicide rates, it's still too early to estimate the true cost of the invasion. Our correspondent Liz Wall reports.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article21518

Israeli Rabbi who teaches that “the sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews” plans to tap support of Sephardic Jews in US. In its 30 years of existence, Shas has evolved from a marginal ethnic political group to Israel’s fourth largest party in the Knesset and is today the unchallenged kingmaker of Israeli politics.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/23-2

Too bad Kim Jong-il kicked the bucket last weekend. If the divine hand that laid low the North Korean leader had held off for a week or so, Kim would have been sustained by the news that President Obama had signed into law a bill that puts the United States not immeasurably far from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in contempt of constitutional protections for its citizens or constitutional restraints upon criminal behavior sanctioned by the state.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/12/23-7

Forget monetary policy. Re-examining the cause of the Great Depression—the revolution in agriculture that threw millions out of work—the author argues that the U.S. is now facing and must manage a similar shift in the “real” economy, from industry to service, or risk a tragic replay of 80 years ago.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/12/23-0

LISBON - The most far-reaching programme of privatisation of state enterprises in the history of Portugal kicked off Thursday with the sale of almost all of the state's shares in the Energias de Portugal (EDP) utility to China's Three Gorges Corp. The Chinese company paid 3.5 billion dollars for a 21 percent stake, beating out Germany's E.ON and Brazil's Eletrobras and Cemeg, and making it the largest shareholder. The state was left with less than four percent of the shares in the power company. Privatization is another word for enslavement. When the people don't own and control the means of production they are slaves.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/22/young-europeans-emigrate-argentina-jobs

Thousands have left Europe this year in search of employment and a more relaxed lifestyle in Buenos Aires. The newly elected prime minister of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, caused a minor scandal during his electoral campaign earlier this year when he claimed that "1,200 young Spaniards are emigrating to Argentina each month" due to his country's economic crisis.

Link: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/america-israel-iran-a-shifting-risk-4565/

A series of developments - in Iraq, the United States and Iran itself - nudges the balance of calculation towards an attack on Tehran. The additional danger is that this could happen by inadvertence.