Eric Walberg

A new world is being born, one without the US dollar greasing the wheels of commerce, notes

Yekaterinburg, famous tragically as the spot Lenin chose to have the Tsar and his family executed in 1918, and ironically as the fiefdom of Boris Yeltsin, who finished off the Russian revolution itself in 1991, witnessed something no less remarkable last week when leaders of the so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) held their first summit, following the yearly meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The BRIC countries comprise 15 per cent of the world economy, 40 per cent of global currency reserves and half the world’s population. Brazil , India and China have also weathered the financial crisis better than the world as a whole.

Full story »

Allen L Roland

The United States is just over 230 years old and is now firmly entrenched in the seventh stage of all civilizations ( Apathy ) with only Dependence and eventually Bondage ahead of it:

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through a nine stage sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacence to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependency back again into bondage. ( Attributed to Alexander Tytler )

Full story »

Jim Miles

Having watched the situation in Iran now for several years through to the current protests by the dissident citizens of the country unsatisfied with the election results, I remain as perplexed as ever. Not the perplexity of not understanding what is actually going on as there are enough news sources available outside the control of western corporate media, but the perplexity of a world that ignores the larger context and the longer history of the peoples involved.

Iran is about as democratic as most Middle East countries are. While they do have an autocratic Supreme Ruler based on an Islamic model, their elections demonstrate the passions of the people and their beliefs. Iran is not perfect and does sink into the atrocities of arresting and abusing its own citizens. The current election by most accounts was delivered fairly with pre-election polls from accepted international sources indicating that Ahmadinejad would win with an impressive two to one majority. Official government reports indicate this is what happened.

Full story »

Roland Michel Tremblay

I don’t think much of women in this world. This is quite a hard statement to make, it is politically incorrect, I certainly will lose my job for stating it so clearly. However you have not heard the end of my argument yet. I don’t think much of men either. You’re all the same, you just alienate each other as you’re simply incompatible. We’re all tired of this life, we’re all tired of each other. If we could only just shut up once in a while, the battle of the sexes could finally be over.

Tired of your woman? You shouldn’t have let her out of the cupboard then. Tired of your man? Find yourself a high paying job, make sure he loses his (it should not be hard these days), install him on the sofa every morning with a baby in each arm and a remote control in the middle. I believe you will not meet much resistance. After all, it is a myth that men cannot change diapers, once they are obliged to do so by their other half.

Full story »

Re-reporting and commentary by Carolyn Bennett

UN food agency reports a sixth of the world’s people are undernourished ¯1.02 billion people are hungry.

This pandemic does not come from eating pork or traveling cooped up on transcontinental flights. Nor does it come from lack of food.

“Many of the world’s poor and hungry are smallholder farmers in developing countries,” says Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

“[They] have the potential not only to meet their own needs but to boost food security and catalyze broader economic growth. [But] to unleash this potential and reduce the number of hungry people in the world, governments, supported by the international community, need to protect core investments in agriculture so that smallholder farmers have access not only to seeds and fertilizers but to tailored technologies, infrastructure, rural finance, and markets.

Full story »

Stuart Littlewood

In the turmoil following Iran's presidential election, the country's Supreme Leader has denounced Britain as the "most treacherous" of Iran's enemies. Western diplomats, he said, "are displaying their enmity against the Islamic state, and the most evil of them is the British government".

I hope he doesn't include ordinary British people in his condemnation. However, he's welcome to hammer our politicians.

Full story »

Stephen Crockett

It mystifies this writer that many Senate Democrats have failed to understand that killing the “public option” compromise position being pushed by the Obama will mean the end of their Senate careers. Politics has changed dramatically in the last few years and many Senate incumbents seem to have missed the size and intensity of the paradigm shift.

Full story »

by Stephen Lendman

When politicians plan reform, it's wise to be skeptical and hold on to your wallets. So fixing the economy by bailing out Wall Street is wrecking it, and Obama's proposed health care reform taxes more, provides less, places profits above human need, avoids the most vital solutions, and leaves a broken system in place.

Now there's "Financial Regulatory Reform, A New Foundation: Rebuilding Financial Supervision and Regulation" - announced June 17 with Obama saying he'll send Congress a plan to create new government agencies, give the private banking cartel Federal Reserve more power, and address five major problems needing regulatory and legislative measures to fix.

Full story »

"Give Me Liberty ..."

Iranian People Demand Democracy

Iranian citizens charge police with courage, their bodies, and a few rocks to secure their rights to self determination and clean elections. Image

Michael Collins

Neoconservatives and other con artists are now claiming to support the Iranian people. Some are the same people who pushed to bomb Iran preemptively just a few years ago. Others, who stood on the sidelines to see who would "win," are now defenders of clean elections. It doesn't matter to the Iranian's demanding respect and self determination. For them, the real victory will be to emerge as a free nation that's outside the "great game" of the major powers.

Full story »

by Stephen Lendman

For over 30 years, F. William Engdahl has been a leading researcher, economist, and analyst of the New World Order with extensive writing to his credit on energy, politics, and economics. He contributes regularly to business and other publications, is a frequent speaker on geopolitical, economic and energy issues, and is a distinguished Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

Engdahl's two previous books include "A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order" explaining that America's post-WW II dominance rests on two pillars and one commodity - unchallengeable military power and the dollar as the world's reserve currency along with the quest to control global oil and other energy resources.

Engdahl's other book is titled "Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation" on how four Anglo-American agribusiness giants plan world domination by patenting all life forms to force-feed GMO foods on everyone - even though eating them poses serious human health risks.

Full story »