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“Global Imbalances” versus Internal Inequalities (Understanding the World Economy)
By James Petras
Introduction
The deep and ongoing crises of leading capitalist countries, especially the United States, has provoked a debate over the causes, consequences and appropriate policies to remedy it.
The debate has revealed a deep division over the causes and remedies, with Anglo-Franco American (AFA) politicians, columnists and economists on one side and their Asian-German (AG) counterparts on the other. In general terms the AFA spokespeople put the blame for the crises on external factors, or more specifically they point their finger at the positive trade surpluses, dynamic export sectors and high investment rates in productive sectors and low levels of consumption in the AG countries as the cause of ”unbalances” or “disequilibrium” in the world economy.
Constitutional Hypocrisy
Joel S. Hirschhorn
Millions of Americans are politically informed, smart, active and angry. They see many wrongs in our political and government system. They are fed up with politics as usual, meaning corrosive corruption of politicians by corporate and other special interests. They see little good in either the Democrat or Republican parties. And they almost always share a common bond: They love and honor the US Constitution, even though they may see some flaws in it. Yet they are also constitutional hypocrites.
Why do I say this? Because Americans are overwhelmingly ignorant or misinformed about the constitutional paths for amending the Constitution. Too many, in fact, seem to miss the profoundly important point that the Founders and Framers knew that they had not created a perfect document and blueprint for the US. That is why they placed two specific paths for amending the Constitution.
The Rising Cost of Idiocy
by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy
The dumbing down of America began with Ronald Reagan who made idiots feel good about being idiots. Reagan proved that not only was intelligence not required to be President, it might even be a handicap.
Reagan proved that any politician ignoring the 'idiot' voting block [the GOP] imperils his/her political future. Thus, Sarah Plain, who became an expert on Russia by observing its coast line from across the Bering Strait, is assured a growing constituency: the growing legion of idiots! She is the poster bimbo of idiocy. It's champion.
Tel Aviv, Peace and the Obama Prize
Jeff Gates
The Nobel Committee again piqued the interest of those who marvel at the impact of an annual ritual of global branding that in 1973 labeled Henry Kissinger a peace laureate! As with many aspects of unconventional warfare, what emerges in the foreground often obscures behavior that remains concealed in the background.
Anyone paying attention knows that pro-Israelis manipulated the intelligence that induced the U.S. to invade Iraq. That same source is now hoping to expand this war to Iran—without being detected. In an irony of epic proportions, this award may enable that deceit.
At What Cost the Israel Lobby?
By: Jeff Gates
More than 46 years ago, President John F. Kennedy sought to preclude a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. In June 1963, he wrote the last in a series of insistent letters to Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Those letters sought what Israel now demands of Iran: international inspections of its nuclear facilities. The key difference: Kennedy knew for certain that Israel, while portraying itself a friend and ally, repeatedly lied to Kennedy about its nuclear weapons development at the Dimona reactor in the Negev Desert.
Best estimates point to sometime between 1962 and 1964 when Israel produced its first weapon in what is now a vast nuclear arsenal estimated at 200-400 warheads. Kennedy’s letter to Ben-Gurion was anything but friendly. The words he chose were drawn not from diplomacy but from the instructions that a judge gives a jury on criminal culpability. In that brusque letter, the U.S. commander-in-chief insisted that this purported ally prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the Zionist enclave was not developing nuclear weapons.
PLANETARY BOUNDARIES: THE CO2 <350 PPM UPPER LIMIT OF HUMAN HABITATS
Andrew Glikson
THE RISE OF ATMOSPHERIC CO2 ABOVE 350 PPM AT THE CURRENT RATE OF 2 PPM/YEAR IS TRANSCENDING ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS WHICH ALLOWED THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION AND, WITH LAG EFFECTS, IS LEADING TOWARD AN ICE-FREE EARTH AND A MASS EXTINCTION OF SPECIES
Climate change is tracking toward levels which transcend the planetary boundaries which allowed the development of humans over the last 3 million years [1]. These limits have already been crossed in terms of the rise in greenhouse gases (CO2, methane, Nitric oxide) and extensive loss of species [1]. Given lag effects, looming threats include (A) ocean acidification and phosphorous flux, collapse of coral reefs and the marine food chain; (B) availability of freshwater; (C) conversion of natural forests to cropland, i.e. the Amazon; (D) ozone depletion; (E) atmospheric aerosol loading and (F) chemical pollution by metals, plastics, radioactive nuclei etc.
Critics of ‘holy Israel’ targeted by Christian Zionists
Stuart Littlewood
Christianity too has its extremists and none worse than the Christian Zionists.
A prize example is His Eminence The Very Reverend Charles J. Edgbaston, DD, PhD, Chair, Christians for Moses Ministries Inc. and Rector, Zion College of Canada.
At least, that is what he calls himself.
This person has just declared me an Enemy of Israel. He says he will broadcast the sentence of his church court to the media and my family. His disciples are “empowered to facilitate” my removal from my place of work. He is applying to the Home Office to revoke my passport and warns that medical and pension benefits may be stopped and my bank accounts frozen. And he has ordered his goons to put me under close surveillance.
The September Employment Rate is 90%
By Robert Singer
The U.S. Department of Labor Official Employment rate in September 2009 is now 90% (Unofficial rate is 75%).
And for those Americans who are still employed, they will find it harder to get that sweet deal on a new car because auto dealers won’t be competing with each other now that Brian Deese, special assistant to president Obama for economic policy made the decision (not the Chrysler bankruptcy judge), to close dealerships without regard to profitability.
Deese, age 31, in his first government position, shuffles back and forth from the West Wing to the Treasury Department dismantling the US Auto Industry and rewriting the rules of American “capitalism”. [1]
Abbas: The Betraying President
By Dr. Elias Akleh
In every occupation one finds a small group of occupied native puppets, who would betray and oppress their own people for the sake of fake political power positions and money granted by the occupier. As we find puppet President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, and puppet President Jalal Talabani in Iraq, we also find puppet President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank of Israeli occupied Palestine.
In my March 4th, 2008 article I summarized the puppetry in occupied Palestine as the following:
“On the Arab side the first and most prominent traitor to the Palestinians is their President Mahmoud Abbas and his gang, who hijacked and abused Fatah movement for their own political and financial gains. Since his appointment as Palestinian Prime Minister in March 2003 had been enforced on Arafat, Abbas had shown inclinations towards American and Israeli policies even when they were harmful to his people. He exhibited opposition to Palestinian resistance groups, which became more prominent after being elected as President through the help of Israel and the US. He routinely described Palestinian resistance, especially that of Hamas, as harmful and silly, and had clamped down on them. Through his chief of security, Mohammad Dahlan, Abbas tried to cripple the democratically elected Hamas government and to sabotage its work, which led to Hamas’ purging of Gaza Strip. Abbas dissolved Hamas government and appointed a new one severing Gaza Strip from the West Bank. He refused to negotiate with Hamas government and negotiated instead with Israel hoping for the downfall of Hamas. When Hamas survived and gained more popularity Abbas recently accused Hamas of harboring Al-Qaeda elements thus giving Israel an open invitation and a justification to attack Gaza to get rid of Hamas.”
FORECLOSURES ACCELERATE AS BANKERS LUXURIATE
Allen L Roland
Bankers have greedily taken their bonuses and are literally walking away from a new tsunami of foreclosures which may lead to a fiscal doomsday for America:
As Martin Weiss, Money and Markets, reported on October 5th ~ " Last year, banks provided new credit at the annual pace of $472.4 billion in the first quarter and $86.7 billion in the second. This year, they're not providing ANY new credit ~ they're actually LIQUIDATING loans at the rate of $857.2 billion in the first quarter and $931.3 billion in the second. So if you're running a business, you may want to think twice before asking your bank for more money. Instead, they may decide to TAKE BACK the money they've already loaned you ! "
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