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Heading Toward Financial Maidan in Ukraine?
by Stephen Lendman
Ukraine's economy is a sinkhole of economic Depression. It's teetering toward collapse.
Its Q I GDP plunged 17.6% year-over-year. It's down 6.1% from Q IV 2014. Ten of the last 11 quarters saw economic contraction. Kiev depends on outside aid to keep operating.
Inflation is out-of-control. The Financial Times reported it reaching 61% in April. Its hryvnia currency is headed toward becoming worthless toilet paper. It's worth less than 5 cents to the dollar. Adjusted for its decline, real inflation tops 270% year-over-year. Living standards are plunging. Poverty is a growth industry. So are unemployment, underemployment and human misery. Most Ukrainians struggle to get by. They can't make ends meet. Skyrocketing prices makes basic goods and services unaffordable.
IMF diktats exacerbate already untenable conditions. They include laying off government employees, wage cuts, abolishing pensions for some retired workers, freezing them for others, and major cuts in other social benefits en route to eliminating them altogether - a prescription for economic collapse and perhaps Maidan II.
Despotic Saudi Regime to Execute Prominent Cleric
by Stephen Lendman
Saudi Arabia is notorious for public beheadings, whippings, torture, wars of aggression and other lawless actions. It remains America's closest Arab ally.
One rogue state supports another. Both partner in high crimes against peace. Syria and Yemen are Exhibits A and B.
Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr is a prominent nonviolent regime critic.
He's been beaten, shot, arrested, tortured, denied vitally needed medical treatment, and otherwise abused for expressing his views freely.
Last October, he was sentenced to death unjustly for nonexistent sedition, "seeking foreign meddling in (Saudi affairs), disobeying its rulers, and taking up arms against the security forces."
US/Iranian Relations: Back to Square One?
by Stephen Lendman
US concerns about Iran's well-known peaceful nuclear program were always red herring cover for its real aim - regime change, replacing Iranian sovereignty with stooge governance Washington controls.
However P5+1 one talks conclude by around end of June, US business as usual remains unchanged.
Washington wants Iranian independence destroyed. Israel wants its main regional rival eliminated, ideally balkanized into impotent mini-states under Western control.
In an interview with Saudi Arabian owned and operated Al Arabiya News, Obama declared Iran a "state sponsor of terrorism" - months after National Intelligence director James Clapper said this designation no longer applied to Tehran.
In his annual report to the US Senate, he highlighted Iran's "intentions to dampen sectarianism, build responsive partners, and deescalate tensions with Saudi Arabia."
Venezuelan/Palestine Relations: Based on Brotherhood, Solidarity and Mutual Support
by Stephen Lendman
Hugo Chavez recognized Palestinian self-determination saying "I address these words to the United Nations General Assembly…to ratify, in this day and in this setting, Venezuela's full support of the recognition of the Palestinian state: of Palestine's right to become a free, sovereign and independent state."
Chavez was the first head of state to condemn Israel's 2006 aggression against Lebanon.
He publicly accused Israel of "going mad and inflicting on the people of Palestine and Lebanon the same thing they have criticized, and with reason: the holocaust."
"But this is a new holocaust," he said, with the help of America - a rogue state responsible for regional genocide.
Ukraine's Latest Big Lie
by Stephen Lendman
Rogue states have no credibility whatever. Ukraine's regime is a US-installed Nazi-infested fascist police state. It's a serial lying machine.
US-anointed illegitimate oligarch president Poroshenko ludicrously claimed Russia has 11,000 troops in Ukraine - during an interview on German ZDF television.
"Today we can see that, despite the signed Minsk agreement, the number of Russian weapons and Russian troops on the occupied territory is increasing," he blustered.
Not a shred of evidence supports him. He complained about continued conflict in Donbass. He ignored his military's full responsibility complicit with Washington, systematically breaching Minsk ceasefire terms.
How America’s ‘News’ Media Killed America’s Democracy: TPP & TTIP
Eric Zuesse
As I reported on Wednesday, a deal was worked out in the U.S. Senate on the early afternoon of May 13th to "Fast-Track" through to approval U.S. President Barack Obama’s proposed trade deals, TPP with Asia, and TTIP with Europe. (It should have been reported on the nightly TV news programs, but most of them ignored it then, and reported the news only the next day when the Senators made it official.)
TPP and TTIP have been represented in America’s press as ‘trade' deals, but instead they’re actually about sovereignty. They’re about America and the other participating countries handing their democratic sovereignty — on regulation of the environment, consumer protection, worker protection, and finance — over to panels, all of whose members will be selected by the large international corporations that for years have been working with U.S. President Obama’s Trade Representative to draft these “trade” treaties.
Capitalism threatens all life on the planet - Interview with Professor Guy McPherson
by Dylan Murphy
"Let's be honest. The activities of our economic and social system are killing the planet. Even if we confine ourselves merely to humans, these activities are causing an unprecedented privation, as hundreds of millions of people-and today more than yesterday, with probably more tomorrow-go their entire lives with never enough to eat. Yet curiously, none of this seems to stir us to significant action. And when someone does too stridently point out these obvious injustices, the response by the mass of the people seems so often to be . . . a figurative if not physical blow to the gut, leading inevitably to a destruction of our common future." -Derek Jensen, The Culture of Make Believe
Tomorrow you will wake up and may well have a hot shower to start your day. Then you will go to your kitchen and use a variety of electrical devices to prepare breakfast. If you are lucky enough to have a job then you will travel to work in a car or use public transport. All of this activity requires the use of finite energy resources while producing varying amounts of carbon dioxide. According to the people at the World Wildlife Fund I alone need 2.19 planets to sustain my lifestyle. http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/.
Sanders: Our Best Bet
Timothy Gatto
I've been trying to stay away from politics but it's hard. I've been hearing from so many idealists claiming that Bernie Sanders is just another corporate whore that supports the apartheid state of Israel. Unfortunately that's true. He has also voted the wrong way (in my humble opinion) on many other issues.
Here is the question I would like to throw back at my good friend David Swanson who believes that supporting Sanders is a no-win situation; How David, do we get a majority of self-centered, brainwashed Americans who by and large are disgusted with their government to actually take the time to become activists? The truth is that it's not going to happen anytime soon.
Obama Wants Extreme Yemeni Pain and Suffering Inflicted
by Stephen Lendman
Yemen is Obama's war. Saudis and other regional states are convenient US proxies - waging premeditated aggression against a sovereign independent state threatening no one.
A previous article explained halting hostilities for five days is a thinly veiled PR stunt - ignoring US imperial lawlessness to regain control over a former client state.
US strategy involves inflicting maximum pain and suffering. Blockade continues preventing enough vital humanitarian aid from reaching millions of needy Yemenis. Amounts permitted in are woefully inadequate.
Iran's cargo ship "Rescue" is en route with food, water, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid. Washington wants it blocked. It wants it diverted to Djibouti where it controls UN aid for Yemen. An Iranian Defense Ministry statement warned of dire consequences if attempts are made to block its efforts, saying:
"The US and Saudi Arabia will be responsible for the consequences of any provocative moves."
US Strategy: Bombing Yemen Back to the 19th Century
by Stephen Lendman
On March 26, US-orchestrated/Saudi-led terror-bombing began - supplemented by imported takfiri death squad attacks.
It published a new report on Yemeni crisis conditions titled
Civilians are prime targets. Obama is systematically destroying Yemen - the way Washington ravaged Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.
US strategy is total dirty war without mercy - including deliberately targeting civilian neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, power facilities, refugee camps, food depositories, vital infrastructure and other nonmilitary targets. Riyadh's so-called 5-day ceasefire (beginning Tuesday) continues being punctuated by terror-bombings and ground attacks.
According to Shiite News, Houthi Ansarullah Brig. General Sharaf Luqman warned against further violations. Saying they'll be met with strong "determination."
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