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At our expense
Michael Collins
The drama of the government shutdown and threatened default on government obligations is entirely unnecessary. It is also harmful to the people of the United States. Government workers and contractors are idle and without income. Their communities feel the economic impact. The threat of a default is stalling investment and hiring across the country. And, the world watches and judges as Congress engages in its dangerous games.
The overarching threat is an incremental shutdown of all government services beginning on October 17. Either the debt ceiling is raised, something that's been done 78 times since 1960, or the Treasury department begins paying debts from government funds on hand until that money runs out. It's not that we lack the money. This is a tantrum, pure and simple.
Haitian Cholera Victims Sue for Redress
by Stephen Lendman
Long-suffering Haitians know adversity and anguish as well as anyone.
Except briefly after their 1804 revolution and under Jean-Bertrand Aristide, they've been denied legitimate governance, freedom, equity and justice. For over 500 years, they've suffered hugely.
They experienced enslavement, colonization, reparations, despotism, persecution, serfdom, exploitation, resource theft, embargoes, extreme poverty, starvation, disease, early death, immiseration, and dismissiveness of world leaders able to help.
Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. It has the highest infant mortality rate. It has the lowest life expectancy.
Obama's War on Press Freedom
by Stephen Lendman
Free and open expression is our most fundamental right. Without it all others are endangered.
Candidate Obama promised transparency, accountability, and reform. He called sunlight "the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse."
He said whistleblowing reflects "acts of courage and patriotism."
"Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out.""We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance."
Tea Party Terrorists
Joel S. Hirschhorn
By now all conscious people have seen how American Tea Party Republicans, especially those in the House of Representatives and Senate, are widely seen as radical, unreasonable, mad, stupid, extreme, anarchists, delusional and worse. My view is that the best and most useful way to see these people is this: They are political terrorists.
They have developed their own form of violence. They are filled with hatred. Sure, they see themselves as the only genuine US patriots, but that should not fool anyone. They can and do twist, undermine and distort provisions in the US Constitution. The power they now wield has been developed over many years by the actions of more mainstream Republicans, especially manipulating House districts through gerrymandering.
François Hollande’s Missteps put France on Levant sidelines
Franklin Lamb
Beirut
In modern times, France has done far better diplomatically when it has advocated against impetuous military involvement in the internal affairs of other countries. French standing in international politics has been highest when its government was cautious about its military involvement, when it adopted the wise posture of Old World Europe, counseling the impetuous upstarts of the New World. When Charles de Gaulle told Kennedy, then Johnson, to stay out of Vietnam, his international standing skyrocketed. When Chirac told Bush not to go into Iraq, the same thing happened as history repeated. It was the threat of a UN Security Council veto by then-President Jacques Chirac, and French doubts about America’s evidence of weapons of mass destruction, that forced the Bush administration to seek a “coalition of the willing” outside the UN.
Israeli Factor in Syrian Conflict Unveiled
By Nicola Nasser**
More than two and a half years on, Israel’s purported neutrality in the Syrian conflict and the United State’s fanfare rhetoric urging a “regime change” in Damascus were abruptly cut short to unveil that the Israeli factor has been all throughout the conflict the main concern of both countries.
All their media and political focus on “democracy versus dictatorship” and on the intervention of the international community on the basis of a “responsibility to protect” to avert the exacerbating “humanitarian crisis” in Syria was merely a focus intended to divert the attention of the world public opinion away from their real goal, i.e. to safeguard the security of Israel.
Anti-Assad Committed Atrocities
by Stephen Lendman
They repeat with disturbing regularity. Most often Assad's wrongfully blamed. Not this time.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) noticed. Usually it points fingers the wrong way. Rare exceptions prove the rule.
On October 11, it headlined "Executions, Unlawful Killings, and Hostage Taking by Opposition Forces in Latakia Countryside." More on HRW's report below.
Washington bears full responsibility. Syria is Obama's war. Cutthroat killers comprise his proxy army. Complicit allies supply their own brigades. They imported from dozens of countries. There's nothing civil about Syria's war. Assad's battling foreign invaders. He's acting responsibly doing so.
Palestinians' Right to Resist
by Stephen Lendman
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states "(e)veryone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." No one has the right to deny them.
Resisting lawless occupation is universally recognized. Palestinians may use "all necessary means at their disposal" to do so. More on that below.
Consider daily life. Longstanding militarized occupation is ruthless. It's criminal. It's unrelenting. It's suffocating. It's vicious. It denies Palestinians fundamental human and civil rights.
Collective punishment is policy. So is economic strangulation. Free expression, assembly and movement are denied.
Anti-Monsanto Activism
by Stephen Lendman
Monsanto perhaps is the world's most hated corporation. Considering the competition, it's not easy taking top honors.
GMO foods and ingredients are toxic. They're unsafe to eat. They're hazardous to human health. They should be banned. Monsanto's the leading producer.
GMOs poison people for profit. Independent studies explain. Agribusiness giants want all animal and vegetable life forms patented.
They want worldwide food control. Getting it means everything produced for human consumption won't be safe to eat. Last May, tens of thousands of people marched against Monsanto.
They did so in dozens of countries worldwide. They want consumer protections enacted. They want safe food to eat.
They want governments assuring it. They want GMO foods and ingredients labeled. Ideally they want them banned.Former Monsanto executives run the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). An obvious conflict of interest exists.
Global Financial Architecture and Economic Systems on Verge of Collapse
by Cosmic Convergence Research Group
The foundation for the original financial architecture and economic systems of the modern era was laid over the last two to three centuries.
Much of the actual architecture and various systems were designed, engineered and constructed during a time that would be considered the Stone Age when compared to the Information Age of 2013. Herein lies the crux of the matter.
Way back in the days there were relatively few stock and bond exchanges, as well as limited currency and commodity trading. Of course, real estate investments have always been around but certainly not in the form of the Real Estate Investment Trusts, Real Estate Limited Partnerships, and Collateralized Debt Obligations that we see today.
Over the last century there has been exponential growth experienced in every single market across the globe. Equity, bond, currency, commodity, real estate, derivative to name the primaries. Each of their original trading platforms were built to accommodate a vastly different world. You could say that the foundation specs were quite minimal, especially relative to the 21st century.
Continue reading at: Global Financial Architecture and Economic Systems on Verge of Collapse
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