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PROLOGUES: Conversations on the Arts, Politics and Science Between a Russian and an American (Honored Guests Included!)
Part One
With Gary Corseri and Victor Postnikov
Corseri: Hello Victor. …I believe it is about 1 month since our last electronic exchanges. Much has happened!
Referring to your note about the Russian/American anthology of poetry that looms ahead for you... and, especially, your comment that "the poets of both cultures should be conversing with one another," and certainly not forgetting your comment that you would be "delighted" if we were to work on such a project together (as I would be), I want to run a certain idea past you now.
In the past couple of weeks, tensions between the US and Russia have been much in the news here--first, concerning divergent approaches and alliances regarding Syria, the G-8 meeting, etc. Following that, even more news of tensions relating to the spying case of Edward Snowden, statements made by Obama and Kerry here and Putin and Lavrov there.
Brazil: Extractive Capitalism and the Great Leap Backward
James Petras
Introduction
Brazil has witnessed one of the world’s most striking socio-economic reversals in modern history: from a dynamic nationalist industrializing to a primary export economy. Between the mid 1930’s to the mid 1980’s, Brazil averaged nearly 10% growth in its manufacturing sector largely based on state interventionist policies, subsidizing, protecting and regulating the growth of national public and private enterprises. Changes in the ‘balance’ between national and foreign (imperial) capital began to take place following the military coup of 1964 and accelerated after the return of electoral politics in the mid-1980’s. The election of neo-liberal politicians, especially with the election of the Cardoso regime in the mid-1990’s, had a devastating impact on the strategic sectors of the national economy: wholesale privatization was accompanied by the denationalization of the commanding heights of the economy and the deregulation of capital markets.[1] Cardoso’s regime set the stage for the massive flow of foreign capital into the agro-mineral, finance, insurance and real estate sectors. The rise in interest rates as demanded by the IMF and World Bank and the speculative market in real estate raised the costs of industrial production. Cardoso’s lowered tariffs ended industrial subsidies and opened the door to industrial imports. These neo-liberal policies led to the relative and absolute decline of industrial production.[2]
Caving to White House Pressure... Livni Squeals, Kerry Deals and the EU Picks Up the Tab
by FRANKLIN LAMB
Beirut.
It was reportedly a hectic and intense past weekend in Washington and London according to an emailed report from a Capitol Hill source, as the Obama and Cameron administrations tracked down and button-holed the leaders of the 28 European Union delegations gathering in Brussels to finally vote on whether Hezbollah’s ‘military wing’ should be sanctioned, by labeling it a “terrorist” organization. Several conversations took peace between Israel’s Tzipi Livni and the US State Department.
As of last Thursday (7/18/13) the project was by no means a done deal and only 17 EU members could be counted on “to do the right thing “as this observers contact explained. So 11 votes had to me nailed down fast and less than an hour before the EU vote, the last two EU hold-outs reluctantly went along.
Appalling Israeli Gulag Prison Conditions
by Stephen Lendman
Israel's gulag is one of the world's worst. On July 9, 16 human rights organizations headlined "RE: European Parliament Fact-Finding Mission on Palestinian Political Prisoners." They include:
Addameer Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Association
Aldameer Association for Human Rights
Al Haq
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
Arab Association for Human Rights
Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minorities in Israel
Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Israel Terrorizes 5-Year-Old Palestinian Boy
by Stephen Lendman
Societies are perhaps best judged by how they treat prisoners, the elderly, their most disadvantaged and children.
Israel fails on all counts. On July 9, perhaps it reached a new low. Seven IDF soldiers and an officer terrorized a 5-year old boy. They threatened him and his parents.
They handcuffed and blindfolded his father. They handed the boy over to police. They wrongfully accused him of stone-throwing. Many other children face similar charges.
Guilt by accusation is policy. Justice is a four-letter word. Fines, detention or longer-term imprisonment follow. More on the latest incident below.
Defence for Children International (DCI)/Palestine "is a national section of the international non-government child rights organisation and movement."It "promot(es) and protect(s) the rights of Palestinian children." It does so according to international law principles. Each year, about 700 West Bank children are arrested, detained, interrogated, terrorized, and prosecuted in Israeli military courts. DCI lawyers represent 30 - 40% of them.
They're treated like adults. According to DCI, Israel operates "almost completely devoid of international scrutiny.
Collateral Damage: QE3 and the Shadow Banking System
by Ellen Brown
Rather than expanding the money supply, quantitative easing (QE) has actually caused it to shrink by sucking up the collateral needed by the shadow banking system to create credit. The “failure” of QE has prompted the Bank for International Settlements to urge the Fed to shirk its mandate to pursue full employment, but the sort of QE that could fulfill that mandate has not yet been tried.
Ben Bernanke’s May 29th speech signaling the beginning of the end of QE3 provoked a “taper tantrum” that wiped about $3 trillion from global equity markets – this from the mere suggestion that the Fed would moderate its pace of asset purchases, and that if the economy continues to improve, it might stop QE3 altogether by mid-2014. The Fed is currently buying $85 billion in US Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities per month.
The Fed Chairman then went into damage control mode, assuring investors that the central bank would “continue to implement highly accommodative monetary policy” (meaning interest rates would not change) and that tapering was contingent on conditions that look unlikely this year. The only thing now likely to be tapered in 2013 is the Fed’s growth forecast.
More Evidence of Fake Israeli/Palestinian Peace Talks
by Stephen Lendman
There's plenty already. More builds a stronger case. Previous articles explained. Israeli/Palestinian peace talks were stillborn from inception. They began decades ago. This time's no different.
Managed news misinformation substitutes for truth and full disclosure. Facts trump propaganda. Palestinians are on their own. Their legitimate government's excluded from talks.
Imagine holding them with one side denied participation. Imagine a sham process. It's planned. It's baked in the cake. The outcome's predictable. Failure and betrayal define it.
Israeli hardliners run things. They deplore peace and stability. They won't tolerate it. Netanyahu plans to prevent it. Doing so advances Israel's agenda.
It prioritizes greater Middle East control. It includes expanded territories. It involves continued militarized occupation. It means no peace for our time.
Netanyahu's using stealth tactics. He wants a national referendum. He's expediting legislation. He wants Israelis deciding up or down on what affects Palestinians.
America and Germany: Longstanding Espionage Partners
by Stephen Lendman
A previous article discussed Stasi. It was East Germany's secret police. It was one of the most repressive state apparatuses in modern times.
Its infamous reputation speaks for itself. It's reincarnated in new form. Given today's state-of-the-art technology. It's worse now than then. The previous article said the following:
On July 7, Der Spiegel headlined "Snowden claims: NSA Ties Put German Intelligence in Tight Spot."
"They're in bed together," said Snowden. NSA partners with foreign intelligence in other countries. Its "Foreign Affairs Directorate (BND)" does so.
It's done in ways to "insulate their political leaders from the backlash." It's precautionary in case people learn "how grievously they're violating global privacy."
BND/NSA cooperation is far greater than previously known. At issue are serious violations of Germany's privacy laws. According to Der Spiegel, NSA provides "analysis tools."
Israeli/Palestinian Peace: Illusion Substitutes for Reality
by Stephen Lendman
Haaretz editors, correspondents, and contributors know better. Maybe not. Maybe they don't history.
Maybe they don't know it well enough. Maybe they forgot. Maybe they didn't check. Maybe they have other priorities. It shows in commentaries about announced Israeli/Palestinian peace talks. More on that below.
In his original Animal Farm preface, Orwell observed how media contributors suppress uncomfortable truths. Self-censorship works the same way as what's imposed top down.
"Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark," said Orwell.
"At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question."
Edward Snowden, True Hope for Change
by Nozomi Hayase
Amid shock waves from the revelations of mass global NSA spying, the US government reaction to leaker Edward Snowden took a dramatic turn. From media smearing to overcharging him with espionage, this followed the predictable pattern of Obama's war on whistleblowers; shooting the messengers by demonizing and discrediting them in order to kill the message or distract people from it.
This has occurred numerous times with the Obama administration with the aggressive attacks on WikiLeaks and its source Bradley Manning, as well as other NSA whistleblowers like Thomas Drake and imprisoned former CIA officer John Kiriakou.
The US government’s recent manhunt for Snowden went too far in that it tried to intimidate a number of sovereign countries who were defending the universal right to asylum. A prime example was seen in the recent ' jet aggression’ of stopping the Bolivian president Evo Morales’ plane, followed by the hacking of the emails of senior authorities in Bolivia. This desperate action showed the true colors of the Obama administration. It exposed to the world the real viciousness of this regime and their disdain for international law and basic human rights. Obama's 2008 campaign slogan 'Yes We Can' scammed the American people with the secret practice of Stasi 2.0, ‘Yes, We Scan’.
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